“I laugh at that now because it’s so limiting,†said Ashleigh Gordon, the artistic and executive director.
“I talked with someone in the audience,†Gordon said, “and she told me she didn’t realize how much she needed that affirmation as a Black woman.â€.
LESSONS LEARNED “If organizations really do mean it, they need to make sure that diversity and representation are top-of-mind priorities — not something they say, but something they do,†Gordon said.WHAT IT DOES “We call ourselves an activist orchestra,†said Eun Lee, the executive director of this New York-based ensemble, which was founded in 2014.As such, said Lee Bynum, the board’s chairman, The Dream Unfinished is designed to be nimble enough to respond in real time to, for example, election season or the Black Lives Matter demonstrations of the past yearLESSONS LEARNED “You can’t address a challenge that hasn’t been identified,†Bynum saidWHAT IT DOES In the mid-2000s, Jeri Lynne Johnson was having trouble getting work as a conductorJohnson said that her ensemble, which is based in Philadelphia, has a leg up on diversity only because “we live the work.†Its community engagement is framed as “inreach†— creating as many pathways as possible to bring especially children into the world of classical musicLESSONS LEARNED “The most important that these legacy institutions need to genuinely consider is: Whom do you serve?†Johnson said