About the Consortium
Our goal is to shine a light on the many significant contributions made by BIPOC composers throughout American history. We are excited and encouraged by the recent commitment to programming music that allows all of our students to see themselves and the communities around them reflected in a more representative group of composers. Like you, we are always searching for new or self-published composers who are not supported by the publishing industry or discovering historical composers and works who have been marginalized by classical music over centuries.
The missing link in our music education curriculum is historical works by BIPOC composers. There are hundreds of major contributors to the repertoire that have been marginalized. We feel it is vital for our students to see and perform music by BIPOC composers reflected in their historical context. Contemporary BIPOC composers and future generations of composers need to understand the untold stories and underperformed works. We have all been taught the long and extensive line of predominantly white composers from Western Europe - now it is time to highlight and uplift other composers.
In some ways, it almost more important for predominantly white institutions (PWI's) to engage with, perform and learn about these historical BIPOC composers. By embedding this line of curriculum, we can truly begin to create an anti-racist curriculum in the instrumental music classroom. Learning about and performing works from historical BIPOC composers de-centers the whiteness from the repertoire, creating space for students to see musical performance as a pathway for all.
Additionally, we firmly believe that all students should experience and engage with curriculum that both represents 'mirrors' and 'windows' - articulated here in the National Seed Project. Since most repertoire performed by high school and university bands and orchestras was written by predominantly white male composers, there has been a significant imbalance for our students. For our white students, there are too many mirrors and not enough windows. For our female and non-binary students, there are too many windows into the male perspective and not enough mirrors. And for our students of color, there are too many windows and not enough mirrors.
Our project firmly believes that Black Lives Matter. And for now, we will be focusing on historical Black composers. There are certainly a number of other BIPOC composers we would like to highlight and feature, but for now, we are working to bring more historical Black composers to the folders for our musicians and into the concert halls for our audiences.
We believe that this project addresses these objectives and we are so excited to dialogue and collaborate with you!
Thank you,
Brian Lukkasson and Reid Wixson
The missing link in our music education curriculum is historical works by BIPOC composers. There are hundreds of major contributors to the repertoire that have been marginalized. We feel it is vital for our students to see and perform music by BIPOC composers reflected in their historical context. Contemporary BIPOC composers and future generations of composers need to understand the untold stories and underperformed works. We have all been taught the long and extensive line of predominantly white composers from Western Europe - now it is time to highlight and uplift other composers.
In some ways, it almost more important for predominantly white institutions (PWI's) to engage with, perform and learn about these historical BIPOC composers. By embedding this line of curriculum, we can truly begin to create an anti-racist curriculum in the instrumental music classroom. Learning about and performing works from historical BIPOC composers de-centers the whiteness from the repertoire, creating space for students to see musical performance as a pathway for all.
Additionally, we firmly believe that all students should experience and engage with curriculum that both represents 'mirrors' and 'windows' - articulated here in the National Seed Project. Since most repertoire performed by high school and university bands and orchestras was written by predominantly white male composers, there has been a significant imbalance for our students. For our white students, there are too many mirrors and not enough windows. For our female and non-binary students, there are too many windows into the male perspective and not enough mirrors. And for our students of color, there are too many windows and not enough mirrors.
Our project firmly believes that Black Lives Matter. And for now, we will be focusing on historical Black composers. There are certainly a number of other BIPOC composers we would like to highlight and feature, but for now, we are working to bring more historical Black composers to the folders for our musicians and into the concert halls for our audiences.
We believe that this project addresses these objectives and we are so excited to dialogue and collaborate with you!
Thank you,
Brian Lukkasson and Reid Wixson