It’s Time to Talk About Classical Music’s Diversity Problem
Che Buford accomplished something most violinists will claim is nearly impossible: using Youtube videos, he taught himself to play the violin entirely by ear. He was 11 years old. He first heard the sound of a violin one year earlier, during a recital at his elementary school in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. “I was so intrigued by the sound the instrument could make, it inspired me to learn to play,” he said. Two years later he would take his first lesson, and five years after that he would step foot on the most famous stage in New York, Carnegie Hall.
At 19, Che is currently in his second year at conservatory. Quiet and gentle, his subtle confidence belies a rise to success in the ruthlessly competitive world of classical music, where the now-ubiquitous conversation about diversity, equity, and inclusion has only just begun to meaningfully impact a Eurocentric musical culture.
Despite the enormous influence of musicians of color on nearly every genre of music, the classical music field remains starkly white and Asian. In 1996, Black and Latinx musicians comprised one percent of American orchestras. Today, their ranks have increased to just four percent, according to data compiled by the League of American Orchestras. Leadership of the world’s prominent musical institutions remains similarly homogeneous, with people of…
