a short reflection on race relations in classical music

I had wrote this back in November 2019, but due to recent events, was inspired to upload this online. Hope you enjoy reading this, and I hope it provokes some thought


Chineke! Orchestra — Chineke! Foundation

Image of the Chineke! Orchestra, an orchestra consisting of majority musicians of black and ethnic origins. It's motto is 'championing change and celebrating diversity in classical music'. (Courtesy of: https://www.chineke.org/chineke-orchestra)



In order for a wider audience to come into the world of classical music, they must come to a point in their mind where they can feel included within the community. When I consider how much diversity is emphasised in the many different sectors of society, it is more and more progressive in opening for other cultures. We as a people are becoming more and more aware of the cultures around us, and we are in a society of learning quick and fast. However, when I enter a concert hall to watch classical music, I cannot help but count the number of ethnic minorities within the place. I remember going with a friend, who is of an Indian background, but born in the UK - we went to a concert celebrating the music of John Williams and Hans Zimmer. The concert was packed, as it should be, the composers’ music has had such a profound effect on the world. However, the amount of ethnic minorities, you could count on two hands. The amount of people from a black background, maybe on one hand. I usually go to these events and play “spot the black person”, which is fun, because it is a challenging game.


Wherever I go to study music, or to watch music, of classical background, I scarcely see anyone of my background. And yet, I am happy to live in a time where the likes of Sheku Kanneh-Mason and his family are receiving worldwide attention - what a fabulous time, to see one of the most talented musical families, representing my ethnic background. Yet, the applause from my own community remains very quiet. Maybe they struggle to applaud what seems a foreign and upper-class music to them. Maybe, we as a people struggle to consider such a “creolised” result. However, the worst thing to assume is that somehow, classical music is the superior music. It carries white supremacist undertones. I will come back to this point later.


I wonder, if despite the increase in diversity in this country, there is still a feeling within our community about not feeling included. When I speak to other young people my age about what music they like and don’t like, classical music tends to fall on the latter. And yet, they don’t hate classical music - we consume it in a plethora of films that we watch all the time. Yet, in the concert hall, the amount of young people in attendance is remarkably low. Is it the context of where this music takes place that “oppresses” and “alienates” minorities from coming to appreciate the music?


What if, classical music continued to reach people where they are, in communities? I appreciate the work of the CBSO for example, as they are bringing classical music to educational environments in working-class locations, and bringing young people to classical music via Project Remix.


But yet, I can still count the number of black people at a concert with one hand.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5BQbrtNgUHA


I was shown the following video by my friend from CapitalXtra, a popular chart music radio station in the UK. As much as I found the video really funny (and since I live in urban Birmingham, the slang used flows in my veins), it had done the job, perhaps not intentionally, of alienating young audiences and ethnic minorities from classical music, as it places the music at a level that deliberately seems “too complex” for young people to understand. And yet, that is the point of the humour, how the dissonance between two generations (older and younger), two ethnicities (“white” and “black”) come together to create an original sketch that is fresh and entertaining.


Yet, it has done the job.


And so, it gives the young viewers watching it subconsciously that they are not included in classical music, and that it is a music that belongs in the past, and should stay there, along with its high class culture and White-Euro supremacy.


So to make young people, or ethnic minorities feel included, it requires the classical musical culture to humble itself, and to present its music in locations where classical music is not traditionally performed. In community centres, in schools, on the streets. 


The “streets”, carries a nuance of urban inner city life, and a connotation of being dangerous and unsafe. Yet, when I consider my black ethnicity and my background, that is where us as a young people come together and connect. We meet on the streets to spit bars, in the studios to record of our experiences, in community centres to find like-minded people, and at each other’s yards. We as a people, are meeting in these locations to create music, spontaneous and innovative. The creativity of us as young people is incredible.


And therefore, the worst thing to consider is to look down on our creativity, as a black ethnicity,  in favour of classical music. This is not what I am trying to perpetuate. Rather, what I would like to propose, is that both musics, and its cultures, feel comfortable to come together, so that we can collaborate and grow. This is what Concert Hall music has been doing for years - integration with other cultures - whether that is overtly admitted or not. The only way to fully complete such a task is to “decolonise” perceptions of one group (we as a black people) about the other group (the British middle/upper class, and even the working class).  And these are more than perceptions, as they are based on actual experience of dissonance and discrimination from white people to black people. There has been a strongly innate feeling of racial tension between white and black since slavery, Victorian Britain and the arrival of Windrush.


But, isn’t music about unity, and extends to bring people together? Isn’t music there to challenge us, no matter what background? Perhaps this is what is missing. For the UK music of the Black British has a history of trying to build community based on struggle and experiences into music, and has attracted as a result young people and other ethnic minorities, whereas classical music has always retained an “exclusivist” element. So what is missing is appreciation from both sides. The two musical cultures to see through the goggles of each other’s music, according to the context that they are based. Perhaps, since classical music has always been with in the context of a concert hall, which is somewhat “away” from the working-class people, where as Black British music has been within the heart of the community, the latter can attract people who do not need to be of an exclusive background.


Classical music culture requires to “move in” with ethnic cultures, and eat with the young people and ethnic communities. They need to see it through their eyes, and include these groups in the events that they invest in, and likewise, other cultures will include classical music. There is a lot of distrust and fear, which needs to be addressed, and the best way to do this is through inclusivity, and the only way to bridge a connectivity is through mediators, ambassadors, whom represent the black culture, that can reassure the black community that they can feel welcome, and members from the white British community to reassure their community to integrate with the ethnic communities. That is why I am so grateful to be a CBSO Young Ambassador. It allows us as a collective that opportunity to be the mediators between one culture and another, and to make changes, not only for a single concert night on the 9th January, but depositing for a brighter future.


Thank you for reading, God bless. :-)


-ty

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