Race and Racialized Aesthetics in Conservatory Education
By Christopher Jenkins
This piece is part of our Spark series: Access and Gatekeeping in the Academy
Over the last few decades, the conservatories and orchestras that serve as gatekeepers in the classical music world have enhanced their efforts to recruit and retain students of color, as exemplified by fellowships at the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, the Chicago Sinfonietta, and the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and the College-Conservatory of Music at the University of Cincinnati. Even in 2010, fully 36.3% of students involved in the study of music in higher education identified as students of color. And yet, the field of classical music has been slow to recognize that even when gifted with the tenacity and ability necessary to win acceptance into prestigious programs, students and young professionals of color encounter a range of challenges within classical music learning environments that may cause them to leave academic institutions or even drive them out of the field. Moreover, those professional musicians who are successful often carry emotional baggage, perhaps even unconsciously, from earlier negative experiences.
As conversations regarding diversity are advanced within every sphere of higher education, it is appropriate for the musical institutions recruiting students of color to recognize that the challenges facing those students result from racism and prejudice, both latent and overt, on the individual and institutional level, reflecting the dominance of a white majority in the design of the structure and content of such institutions, and are representative of the systemic racism that is unequivocally a feature of classical music institutions. This essay examines some of the challenges particular to schools of music and conservatories, and explores potential solutions.
The issue of racialized aesthetics within classical music deserves far more attention than it receives. In this context, the term “aesthetics” refers not only to concepts of beauty in terms of musical sound, which is itself culturally delimited, but the unspoken and shared aesthetic assumptions that inform community standards regarding acceptable dress, manner of speech, and even the physical comportment of the body in public spaces, assimilation into which can generate tension and feelings of exclusion.
Because most institutions of higher learning have been designed by and for a resourced white majority, their values reflect the aesthetic of that group. The result of this fact in higher education is that peers and professors judge not only musical performance, but also students’ dress and speech by the standards of that dominant aesthetic. Within music performance, these aesthetic judgements introduce a higher level of scrutiny of acceptable behavior and dress in rehearsal, on stage, and in the private lesson. Standard concert dress (for example, a tuxedo or tails for men) reflects a Eurocentric and heteronormative standard. Particularly because of the higher level of scrutiny in an individual private lesson, students from environments with radically different aesthetic standards may feel intense pressure to suppress their own natural self-expression and conform to the dominant aesthetic in this environment in terms of speech, dress, and interaction with their studio professor — that is, to fully assimilate. The psychological consequences of this suppression, both short-and long-term, often produce a reduction in academic and musical performance and mental health. (It is important to note that even when successful musicians of color are the instructors, they may have experienced a degree of assimilation themselves and might unconsciously reflect back various elements of the dominant aesthetic, particularly by sometimes making pejorative and racialized judgements of students of color who struggle with assimilation.)
The aesthetics of speech are enormously significant here, for all students in terms of the speech that is normalized in lectures and lessons, but especially for vocalists, who must enroll in diction courses that grade them on “appropriate” speech patterns. While this would be the most obvious example of gross identity erasure within the conservatory, it is instructive as a clear example of the many other types of similar erasure that exist on multiple levels and spheres in this environment. Music theory and history classes, for example, consistently elevate the music of European composers, eschewing the possibility that similar theoretical phenomena might be found in music by artists of color. Courses on the musical theories of notorious racists who wrote openly on the superiority of both Germanic music and people, such as Heinrich Schenker, are universally required in graduate programs. The racialized aspects of the very sound conception prized in classical music training — one that is smooth and seamless, without imperfection or “noise” — are rarely interrogated.
As is the case in STEM and many other fields, highly-resourced students who have been able to take years of private instruction and music theory at preparatory programs are best-prepared for conservatories, which are generally designed with such students in mind. Under-resourced students without such exposure will generally struggle academically and require appropriate support in order to succeed. In music performance, this issue of resources is compounded by the fact that attendance at expensive multi-month summer music festivals is virtually a requirement for students to ensure competitive progression on their instruments. Students who cannot attend such festivals are essentially ceding the equivalent of several semesters of progress to their peers, with whom they are in competition for slots at graduate school and ultimately as performers. Others may find they are required to purchase sheet music or scores costing hundreds of dollars, or are required to regularly utilize high-priced software to complete arranging or composition assignments. Professors who make these requirements must be advised that under-resourced students are often challenged in obtaining laptops and other devices that could even run such software in the first place, not to mention to check email or access the internet from a dorm room to study and conduct research, or download and print free (and low-quality) copies of music. It is incumbent upon institutions making a special effort to recruit under-resourced students to ensure that these students receive appropriate academic, financial, and extracurricular support in addition to standard financial aid and scholarship packages.
It is also critical for professors to acknowledge their own implicit racist attitudes, and the effect of such attitudes on their judgments of students. This admission is particularly challenging for instrumental professors raised in a professional culture that elevates the significance of subjective musical judgements made by experts, and supposes that appreciation of Western art music must transcend racial boundaries. The theory of stereotype threat, which holds that individual performance is degraded on tasks where there exists a fear of confirming a negative stereotype about one’s group, is also relevant in this context. Demonstrated empirically within diverse contexts ranging from performance on tests of verbal and mathematical aptitude to sports, this concept has not been tested empirically within classical music performance as of this writing, but there is no reason why it would be active in every other domain except this one. Additionally, research indicates that, owing to the stresses involved with navigating macro-level racist systems and environments as well as the adjustment challenges presented by the social and academic environments of the conservatory, students of color are more prone to depression and anxiety, and to suffer poor academic performance as a result. Taken together as a whole, these facts suggest that it is incumbent upon professors to rethink their own assumptions about the musical and academic ability of students of color before ascribing poor performance to negative innate musical characteristics.
Because marginalization of students of color within conservatory environments is a multi-faceted issue, change will require simultaneous efforts on multiple levels. One starting point would be for conservatories to make more a concerted effort to adopt culturally responsive pedagogical practices. While culturally responsive pedagogy has been increasingly utilized within K -12 education, awareness of such practices within conservatories and schools of music remains marginal, particularly in the applied realm. As conservatories design new approaches toward navigating diversity, they must also think deeply about intersectionality, and broaden their conception of marginalization beyond identities that are visible. Faculty and administration must require education on the issues of LGBTQ students (particularly transgender students), and also students with disabilities. Ultimately, the deep-seated change that is necessary requires strong leadership on multiple levels, both from faculty and administration; intentional efforts that operate only on one level are unlikely to succeed.
Christopher Jenkins is the associate dean for academic support at Oberlin Conservatory. He is an educator, administrator, and performing violist. At Oberlin, he is a Deputy Title IX Coordinator and Conservatory Liaison to the Office of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion. He is currently earning a DMA in viola performance from the Cleveland Institute of Music, and a Ph.D. in musicology from Case Western Reserve University, where his performance and research focuses on the music of African-American composers. He is the recipient of the American Society for Aesthetics’ curriculum diversification grant for his annotated bibliography on sources related to the aesthetics of African-American classical music, and the Irene H. Chayes “New Voices” award for his monograph reimagining the practice of classical music through the lens of Black aesthetics.
