Speaking to The New York Times’ Zachary Woolfe and Joshua Barone, nine African-American artists – among them, Thomas Wilkins, the Virginia-born music director of the Omaha Symphony and former associate conductor of the Richmond Symphony – suggest ways that classical music, now dominated by white and East Asian performers, can more readily accommodate musicians of color:
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The Times’ Anthony Tommasini writes that a key to diversifying the ranks of orchestras is to abolish “blind auditions,” in which the race, sex and other visual characteristics of musicians cannot be seen by their auditors:
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Conductor Leonard Slatkin seconds Tommasini’s motion, and proposes a Slatkin Audition Process:
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