Carnegie Hall

By Laura Andrade, Cellist and Ensemble Connect Fellow

In a rapidly evolving and chaotic world where the feeling of groundlessness often seeps in, the one thing that has kept me anchored is community. Growing up in Austin, Texas, I picked up the cello at age five and started learning music with other kids and their families. Little did I know that this weekly activity was the beginning of a community that would last for a lifetime. The meaning of community has grown for me over the years, and through it all, music has been at the center. I have found so much inspiration from seeing the positive effects that music can have in a community when musicians truly listen to the needs of society, and I believe that it is incumbent upon us to respond to a community’s needs in a meaningful and relevant way.

I have come to understand that community is less an attainable object and more an active pursuit—constantly engaged, nurtured, and strengthened. In deepening our reach in communities, musicians must advocate and celebrate all people with the music we share. We have the incredible privilege to express the human experience and to be an emotionally supportive and spiritual force for audiences; yet, many of our practices and our consumption of classical music has become detached and exclusive. We cannot continue to perpetuate the system that has excluded so many people and that does not reflect all members of the community where we live.

I have been fortunate to attend great music schools where I had incredible mentors throughout my years. Regardless of my improvement in instrumental ability and growth as a performer, there was, however, always something about my time in school that felt stifling and insular. While there are certainly many complex reasons I had this experience, I believe that part of it was attributed to the fact that my environment was inherently isolated. This detachment is ingrained in the conservatory curriculum that historically has compartmentalized composers who are black, indigenous, and people of color; composers who are women; and composers of non-Western music. While my love for the music I studied in school is never-ending, I have realized that there are many composers whose works are not known and that I need to proactively broaden the music I learn, perform, and teach.

As part of my time in Ensemble Connect, I had the opportunity to help to curate and program our own concerts. Putting these programs together was very much a collective effort, and while we were all eager to create the perfect program for each concert, I found it very helpful to reflect on our professional development sessions. These sessions involved close conversations with guest artists and speakers such as George Lewis, Ara Guzelimian, Ashleigh Gordon, and Ab Sengupta (just to name a few), who each brought forward their experience and expertise in meaningful programming. These conversations led to fascinating discoveries on what we envisioned thematically for our concerts as well as how we want to carry out these perspectives in the future of classical music.

I have also gained a wealth of insight from my Ensemble Connect colleagues. They have opened my eyes to more music and creative possibilities than I had thought possible. Having this experience of close collaboration and conversation with a small group of musicians has fostered an environment where we, together, can explore repertoire that is new to us. At the start of this journey, I admittedly felt overwhelmed by how much I didn’t know and consequently felt vulnerable about my own ignorance. As a first step, I found it important to demystify the process of expanding and diversifying repertoire, and I realized that implementing meaningful and equal representation in the music we share requires authentic exploration, deep listening, and programming with contextual engagement and care. 

In addition to conversation with my colleagues, an abundance of resources have helped me in my research. Not only are there library guides specifically created for expanding classical repertoire, but there are also other outlets of information including websites and roundtables in which people come together to explore these topics and ways to move forward.

Below are multiple resources, including library catalogues and organizational websites that helped start my process to expand my own personal repertoire choices as a solo, chamber, and orchestral musician. I hope that these resources can be the start of a journey towards better understanding of the vast and colorful repertoire of classical music. When our music embodies and reflects the people in our world, we can reinvigorate our practice, our artistry, and our teaching to create a nurturing community of love, support, and belonging.

Resources

These are library guides from educational institutions to support research:

• McGill University, Women Composers
• McGill University, Black, Indigenous, People of Colour (BIPOC) Musicians
• Tufts University, Music Resources for Diversity, Equity, and Antiracism
• Oberlin College and Conservatory, Diversify Your Repertoire

These websites were specifically built to promote Black and indigenous composers, composers of color, and other historically underrepresented composers:

• Institute for Composer Diversity: Created by Rob Deemer, ICD is “dedicated to the celebration, education, and advocacy of music created by composers from historically underrepresented groups through database resources and programming analysis.”
• Sphinx Organization: Composer Resources Directory: The Sphinx Organization has compiled a list of composer resources, including the extensive Sphinx Catalogue of Latin American Cello Works, which lists more than 2,000 entries.
• The Composers Equity Project from Chamber Music America: Chamber Music America provides this extensive resource to represent composers who identify as female and African / Black, Latinx, Asian / South Asian, Arab / Middle Eastern, and Native American (ALAANA), as well as women and gender-nonconforming composers.
• Music of Asian America Research Center: The Music of Asian America Research Center (MAARC) “strives to empower our communities through collecting, promoting, and teaching music created by Asian Americans.”