Darah Hubbard
Historically, American orchestras have been willfully homogenous — with mostly white, male musicians playing works by mostly white, male composers. According to data from the League of American Orchestras, the national average for Black orchestral musicians is a meager 1.8%. Latino musicians are only slightly more represented at 2.5%.
But change is on the horizon for the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra (FWSO) as president and CEO Dr. Keith Cerny and music director designate Robert Spano collaborate on new diversity initiatives.
Cerny says their artistic vision for the orchestra centers around “finding extraordinary talent from all backgrounds” by focusing on new ways to support artists of color, especially Black and Latino Americans.
Here’s a look into their three main initiatives.
Darah Hubbard
Partnering with the Sphinx Organization and the National Alliance for Audition Support The Sphinx Organization, a Detroit-based nonprofit, has spent the last 25 years dedicated to bringing diversity and inclusion to every level of classical music. In 2020, the FWSO started partnering with Sphinx in its mission.
“We’re really just trying to tear down all the barriers that are limiting musicians of color from getting to a place of being able to excel and be part of orchestra,” Sphinx’s manager of ensemble advancement and artist engagement William Neri says.
Neri, a Cuban-American violist, understands first-hand the impact of Sphinx’s work. As a teenager, he attended the Sphinx Performance Academy (SPA), where he first saw a stage full of diverse musicians.
“When I was at SPA, I saw Melissa White and Juan Miguel Hernandez playing in quartets together, and I was like, ‘Damn, I can do this,’” he says. “I didn’t see it as a racial identity thing at the time, but it stuck with me as I got older. It was the only time where I saw that specificity in the representation on stage.”
His position with Sphinx involves managing the National Alliance for Audition Support, which offers mentoring, audition preparation, financial support, and audition preview showcases for Black and Latino musicians.
During spring 2021 auditions, Sphinx candidate Joshua Elmore beat over 100 applicants and was appointed a tenure-track role as principal bassoonist at the FWSO.
“We really look intensively, particularly for younger artists that we might have missed going back to our principal pursuit,” Cerny says. “I don’t know, without Sphinx, whether Joshua would have put his hat in the ring. He might have won without the support, but there’s no doubt that having that relationship really helped.”
Eleven FWSO principals also participated in remote auditions to select Sphinx candidates as substitutes, from which 17 were selected. Many of these substitutes will perform in the upcoming season.
Darah Hubbard
Programming works by composers of color Sphinx president Afa Dworkin says less than 1% of repertoire performed by orchestras is by composers of color but suggests that number be closer to 15%. The FWSO was already ahead of the curve promoting Latino composers, thanks to Peruvian-born, outgoing music director Miguel Harth-Bedoya, but closer attention to Black composers was due.
“One of the things I did last year, which I really enjoyed, was just listen to a lot of works by African-American composers and started to see how we can incorporate them into our program,” Cerny says.
The FWSO has programmed works like Kevin Day’s “Lightspeed” at the America Strong concert last July, Brian Nabors’ “Pulse,” the world premiere of Victor Agudelo’s “Algo va a suceder” in October, and works by other composers of color like Adolphus Hailstork, George Walker, and William Dawson.
There are also talks of commissioning the young, up-and-coming composer Brian Nabors for a world premiere in Spano’s inaugural season. The two worked together previously during Spano’s previous role as music director at the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra.
Engaging Black and Latino performers on the symphonic series
“I see a big part of my job as both a business leader, but also a CEO, is to look for the best possible talent to bring here,” Cerny says. “We owe that to our foundation, to supporters, our donors, our board that guides us. We want to bring in the most exceptional talent that we can.”
Part of bringing the best talent to Fort Worth involves making sure that talent reflects the community — so FWSO has invited distinguished Black conductors, pianists, and violinists on its flagship Symphonic series, including Roderick Cox, Stewart Goodyear, Randall Goosby, and Kevin Edusei.
But advocating for underrepresented groups is not new to Cerny. While serving as general director and CEO at The Dallas Opera, he founded the Mellon Foundation-funded Hart Institute for Women Conductors in 2015 — an international program for women on the cusp of major conducting careers.
“The representation of women on the podium was almost nonexistent when we started the program,” Cerny says.
Since its inception, over 500 woman conductors have applied to the Hart Institute, and conducting fellows have graced the FWSO podium, including Nicole Paiement in November of 2020. This season features Anna Skryleva and music director of the Chicago Opera Theater Lidiya Yankovskaya, while Jane Glover is slated for the 2022 – 2023 season.
For the FWSO, these initiatives are not a temporary effort but rather something that will shape the symphony’s structure and programming in the future. The hope is that having better representation will inspire a diverse group of young musicians to pursue classical music.
“It’s about creating opportunities but also building the next generation,” Cerny says.
He hopes FWSO musicians like Joshua Elmore will inspire others.
“I know that every young bassoonist in the country is going to say, ‘Wow, he just won this, and maybe one day I can do that,’” Cerny says.
And change has already begun on the national level, Neri says.
“The growth is there,” he says. “I sense it. I see it.”
