Three years after Anthony Tommasini, longtime classical music critic for the New York Times, published a controversial piece calling for the end of the blind audition for orchestras, many music institutions around the country have moved to embrace his idea that race should be considered in hiring decisions rather than merit alone.
While Tommasini admitted that historically blind auditions “proved transformative,” especially in boosting female representation among orchestras, he said blind auditions no longer work because they are not addressing what he described as the “appalling racial imbalance” among orchestral ensembles. It’s notable that when making this argument, he failed to note the success Asian artists have experienced in securing U.S. orchestral jobs, especially with elite groups such as the New York Philharmonic, which continues today, according to new data released earlier this year.
In the 1970s, to stem discrimination, orchestras began requiring the first several rounds of auditions to take place behind a large screen, which prevented the audition committee from having any insight into the demographics of the applicant and limited hiring decisions to pure merit. With the right combination of excellent training, talent, and decadeslong dedication to a grueling schedule of four to eight hours of daily practice, an orchestral job was obtainable by the sheer grit of the last musician standing at the end of three rounds of an audition.
Unfortunately, today social justice activism is putting additional barriers in place for some artists by creating a system that makes hiring and programming decisions based on musicians’ gender and skin color. As a conservatory-trained musician, I object to this degradation of the orchestra. Since the introduction of screened auditions, the past 50 years have provided the American dream to musicians from around the world. Changing the audition process to consider factors other than merit decreases the freedom and flourishing of the arts.
Following Tommasini’s lead, a primary driver of prioritizing certain types of personnel and programming among U.S. orchestras is the League of American Orchestras, the organization for orchestral management around the country. Last year, the league reported the launch of The Catalyst Fund Incubator, designed to give 20 orchestras grants of $75,000 to hire diversity, equity, and inclusion consultants to “support their vision of embedding [DEI] into all aspects of the organization’s operations.”
In its 2023-26 strategic framework, the league outlines plans for “Broadening and Redefining Audience and Community Relationships,” which include using social justice programming as the primary vehicle for achieving this goal. Strikingly, not a single strategic goal from the organization influencing the institution of the American orchestras has to do with the primary purpose of the orchestra: creating beautiful music.
The American orchestra should continue its role as a living art history museum. The primary concern of the institution should be presenting the finest execution of beauty through the musical works that have been handed down through generations of cultural heritage. As concert audience numbers dwindle, our top priority should be preserving the works of the great composers such as Beethoven, Brahms, and Tchaikovsky.
Dedication to the advancement of beauty has another benefit: committed patrons. In our chaotic and polarized society, a concert serves as a unique beacon of rest and inspiration in a world that seems to have become more divisive, uncertain, and in some places dangerous in relatively short order. It is also a rare and much-needed reprieve from life tied to digital screens. Philanthropy has played a crucial role in providing access to this art form for people of all ages and walks of life. But access to the concert hall is only meaningful for the future if artists continue to create and excel.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
To stay dedicated to achieving these higher ideals and the intended purpose of the institution, orchestras must remain committed to merit-based hiring. This means keeping blind auditions with screens up in concert halls and ending the DEI-manipulated selection of institutional management. Although these practices may appeal to big philanthropy’s DEI-centered grantmaking, they do not serve the original intent of cultural institutions.
While activists will continue to push agendas, individual institutions, boards, and donors must lead the way in returning to beauty as the core value of programming and merit as the basis of hiring. We must do this out of respect for the talented musicians who created orchestras long ago and to play our most important role as cultural trustees for future generations. We must ensure that the symphony orchestra as an institution is indeed, as composer Gustav Mahler said, “the preservation of fire, not the worship of ashes.”
Kathryn Hougham is a program manager at Philanthropy Roundtable.
