The week off came just after our state music conference which featured more sessions on diversity, equity, and inclusion than I ever remember occurring before! Because self-awareness is always a work in progress, it also featured performances from instrumental groups, including the All State ensembles, playing pieces by entirely men and few, if any, composers of color. The performances were outstanding, and I honestly enjoyed all the selections, but it really felt like a lot of missed opportunities.
After last year's personal revelation that my lack of awareness was part of the problem, it's become something I can't unsee. Programs of all white, all male, often dead composers are very much the norm from beginning band concerts to performances from the best high school instrumentalists in the state and our students deserve better.
All this got my wheels spinning about composer diversity again and brought me back to conversations regarding state lists for Band Festival (MPA, Contest, etc). Trying to program pieces for Festival from diverse composers is challenging. I know because I ran head first into the issue this year. Finding pieces from women or composers of color that also fit our ensembles was just this side of impossible. Neither of my groups are playing a required piece by an underrepresented composer because there were so few to choose from. They're actually all playing works by Carol Brittin Chambers, but one group is playing a march and the other is taking one as our selected which does not have to come from the Basic Music List (BML).
The BML is full of great pieces of band literature. It also serves as a great tool to help directors choose music for their groups. After spending both high school and college playing upper level lit for large ensembles with full instrumentation, I had no idea where to start choosing music for 19 students in a 9-12 Band. The BML gave me ideas on pieces, composers, and levels of music that would be accessible for my students.
However, it is definitely lacking much in the way of diversity. Last year I missed the deadline to recommend music to our state organization for the BML. This year I'm getting a jump start on it though and attempting to crowd source suggestions too by sharing this Google Sheet of pieces by underrepresented composers to pass on to the BML Committee. I know there are great resources out there such as The Institute for Composer Diversity and Jodie Blackshaw's list. But to have something added, our state organization needs specific titles. I've been living in the same grade levels of music for a while now, so getting some ideas from people outside the middle school band world would be outstanding. Several people have already added to the list and I'd love for more to join in! If you know of any level piece for band or orchestra on your own state list or something you've played that would make a good addition, please share in the comments or send me an email suggestion. I'll check it out and get it added. Or if you're a Michigan teacher, please add it right to the spreadsheet!
All this has also kicked me in the butt on getting our Who We're Playing display going. It's not quite what I envisioned, and nobody's going to Pinterest this one, but it's there now. I'm proud of our selections all being by living composers and each group working on a piece by a woman...but they're all doing pieces by the same woman. And our current composers are a little monochromatic. Seeing them all up there is really providing some accountability for me and I've already got my eye on some pieces so that we can do better for the spring.Representation matters. Through working to change things in my own little corner of the Band Universe and collaborating with others to update our BML, hopefully more and more students can identify with the composers whose music they're performing. Please consider adding a selection to the Google Sheet above or sending me a suggestion. The smartest person in the room is the room. Help make our room more inclusive.
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