Asians Are Represented in Classical Music. But Are They Seen? - The New York Times

The success of some artists of Asian descent obscures the fact that many face routine racism and discrimination.

Kim, who is Korean American, was already disturbed by what he saw as widespread racism in classical music.

And he felt his white colleagues in San Francisco, who make up 83 percent of the orchestra, did not share his urgency about building a culture more welcoming to Asian, Black and Latino players.

By some measures, artists with roots in China, Japan, South Korea and other countries are well represented in classical music.

While artists of Asian descent may be represented in classical music, many say they do not feel seen.

“You’re not always allowed to be the kind of artist you want to be,” said Nina Shekhar, 26, an Indian American composer who said her music is often wrongly characterized as having Indian attributes.

The number of Asian soloists and orchestra musicians has swelled in recent decades, even as Black and Latino artists remain severely underrepresented.

“At times, you feel like an endangered species,” said Xian Zhang, the music director of the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra.

Zhang, who is Chinese American, said she has at times had difficulty persuading male musicians to take her seriously, including during appearances as a guest conductor in Europe.

Musicians have formed advocacy groups and have called on cultural organizations to add Asian leaders and to more prominently feature Asian artists and composers.

By 2014, the last year for which data is available, musicians of Asian descent made up about 9 percent of large ensembles, according to the League of American Orchestras; in the United States, Asians represent about 6 percent of the population.

(In Europe, it’s often a different story: In the London Symphony Orchestra, for example, three of 82 players, or less than 4 percent, have Asian roots, while Asians make up more than 18 percent of London’s population.).

Tarumoto, 44, who is Japanese American, said that musicians of Asian descent in the Philharmonic are sometimes mistaken for each other, and in other ensembles she had heard fellow musicians refer to new hires simply as “Chinese girls.”.

While he believes there is less discrimination now, he said he struggled to get opportunities in Europe earlier in his career — in part, he felt, because of his Asian heritage.

Soyeon Kate Lee, 42, a Korean American pianist, said a conductor once described her in front of other orchestra leaders as “cheap and good” and suggested she perform a lap dance.

Yuka Kadota, a violinist for the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, said Asian musicians are seen as “some sort of invasive species, like carp or murder hornets.”.

Kadota, 43, who is Japanese American, said she felt “self-conscious and slightly apologetic” during a recent performance of a Brahms string quintet, because four of the five players were women of Asian descent.

Even as people of Asian descent make strides in orchestras, they remain underrepresented in many parts of the music industry, including conducting, composition and opera.

Works by Asian composers comprise about 2 percent of pieces planned by American orchestras in the 2021-22 season, according to an analysis of 88 orchestras by the Institute for Composer Diversity at the State University of New York at Fredonia.

There are now a large number of Asians in important conservatory vocal programs; the Manhattan School of Music said that 47 percent of the students currently in its vocal arts department are of Asian descent.

It was difficult, he said, to get leaders of the orchestra interested in concerns raised by Asian players until six people of Asian descent were shot and killed in Atlanta in March, which prompted widespread outcry.

Hyeyung Yoon, a former member of the Chiara String Quartet, last year founded Asian Musical Voices of America, an alliance of artists, because she felt performers of Asian descent had no forum to discuss issues of racism and identity.

Yoon said cultural institutions often exclude Asians from discussions about bringing more diversity to classical music because they are assumed to be adequately represented