At the New York Philharmonic’s festival Afromodernism: Music of the African Diaspora, the composer Nathalie Joachim plans to showcase the richness of Black musical expression, like Haitian funeral brass bands, swing and New York Minimalism.
“We are not a monolith,” she said.
Black artists have long struggled to be seen or heard in classical music. And despite some recent progress, they remain vastly underrepresented among orchestra players, soloists, composers and conductors.
But this week, Black musicians will be front and center at the Philharmonic, which is devoting a series of concerts and events to the music of the African diaspora. On Thursday and Friday, the orchestra will play works by living composers like Joachim and Carlos Simon and revered figures like William Grant Still, whose Symphony No. 4 celebrates the fusion of musical cultures in the United States.
On Saturday, the orchestra will host a Young People’s concert focused on diasporic experiences. And later this month, the Philharmonic will also present a concert by the International Contemporary Ensemble, the contemporary music group, featuring a variety of Black composers.
The composer Carlos Simon wants to shatter stereotypes about Black American culture, with a piece highlighting dance forms including tap, holy dance, ring shout and waltz.
“There will be people in the audience who had no idea that Black people were doing a waltz,” he said about wealthy Black Americans in the 1930s who had debutante balls for their children. “It’s going to be a learning experience.”
While composers and performers praised the Afromodernism festival, they said the Philharmonic and other classical music ensembles should more regularly feature Black artists.
“It has to be part of the regular programming, too,” Joachim said. “It shouldn’t always be a special event: ‘Here’s our concert with all the Black people in it.’”
Joachim commended the Philharmonic for offering a forum for Black voices. But she said that the term Afromodernism separated Black people from the idea of modernism.
“I think it is meant to be an invitation for us into modernity, but to me, Black people have been utterly modern,” she said. “Everything started from the continent. Africanism is about modernity, and always has been.”
Progress has been slow. The share of Black orchestra players has barely shifted in the past few years, rising to 2.4 percent in the 2022-23 season, up from 1.8 percent a decade earlier, according to a study by the League of American Orchestras. There is still only one Black player in the Philharmonic, out of 97: Anthony McGill, the principal clarinet.
In the 20th century, many Black composers struggled to be taken seriously by scholars and critics, who questioned their ability to write experimental music. In 1950, Still wrote, “There is resentment against a Negro composer who doggedly insists that he can and will write abstract music of a nonracial nature.”
Today, Black composers say that it can be difficult to land commissions and to have ensembles perform their music with the seriousness they might give Mozart or Mahler. Even thriving composers say they have encountered the perception that their success is because of their race.
Simon, whose work, “Four Black American Dances,” will open the Philharmonic’s festival, said he has tried to dispel that notion.
“I’m here so other composers can have the opportunity and there won’t be such a thing as ‘You’re a Black composer and you should have this opportunity,’” he said. “No, your music is good. That’s why it is getting commissioned.”
At the Philharmonic and other top ensembles, Black composers have been more visible in recent years. When the orchestra’s home, David Geffen Hall, reopened in 2022 after a major renovation, it was inaugurated by an Etienne Charles work that paid tribute to the musical legacy of San Juan Hill, a neighborhood home to many Black residents that was razed to build Lincoln Center.
“There’s a place here for the whole of our community,” said Patrick Castillo, the Philharmonic’s vice president of artistic planning. “We want to be sure we’re offering a platform for all manner of perspectives.”
Some Black artists say they feel a new freedom to experiment. When the Philharmonic commissioned Joachim to write a concerto, she had an unconventional idea: using music to explore fashion and style. She was intrigued by Black dandyism and the ways in which Black men used clothes to subvert power structures and create new identities. The concerto, “Had to Be,” opens with a band offstage that evokes funeral marches from the Caribbean.
“It’s about inviting people into this space of collectivity,” she said, “which is really the antithesis of a concerto in my mind.”
Seth Parker Woods, the concerto’s solo cellist, who has Creole roots, said that he felt deeply connected to the work. “The harmonies and rhythms speak directly to our culture,” he said.
The festival, Parker Woods said, felt like a reunion among artists and friends: “a giant party showcasing many different viewpoints and stories.”
“You’re seeing more of the faces that we should have been seeing and stories that we should have been hearing centuries ago,” he said.
The conductor Thomas Wilkins, who is leading the festival’s concerts, said that orchestras are “getting more and more courageous” in featuring overlooked Black composers and rising stars. When he was a student in the 1970s and 1980s, he noted, Black composers were not a part of the discussion.
He said he hoped the festival would show audiences that “this music has a direct relationship to their everyday lives.”
“In the face of beauty, all of us are humbled,” he said. “The sheer power of music is that you can relate to it — even if it was written by someone who doesn’t look like you.”
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