Harvey Mason Jr.,

Interim CEO and president of the Recording Academy, is leading the organization toward a future of more diversity and inclusion

If Harvey Mason Jr. has any say in the matter, the future of the Grammy Awards and the Recording Academy — under whose auspices the 63-year-old Grammys are presented — will be all about greater inclusion, transparency, diversity and equity. Each is imperative for the music world’s most prestigious and comprehensive annual awards show. The academy has been increasingly criticized in recent years for not doing more to broaden its membership base. Likewise, the Grammys have taken flak for failing to adequately honor hip-hop and Black and female artists in its most prestigious categories: Album of the Year, Record of the Year and Song of the Year.

“I really do believe the academy is undergoing a transformative change towards becoming an even more inclusive and transparent organization,” said Mason, who until early 2020 was chairman of the academy’s board of trustees and then became its interim CEO and president.

“Right now,” he continued, “I can see that our leaders and committee members are composed of a diverse array of musicians, engineers and producers across a variety of genres and walks of life, and they approach everything with a willingness to learn and a commitment to integrity. As we continue to doubledown on this commitment to change, inclusivity and even resiliency, in the next several years I want to see our membership become even more reflective of our broader music community.”

A five-time Grammy nominee, Mason, 52, is a veteran musician and producer. He became acting CEO and president after replacing Deborah Dugan, who on Aug. 1, 2019, began a shortlived tenure as the head of the academy.

She was placed on administrative leave, just 10 days before the 2020 edition of the Grammys, following allegations of workplace misconduct and poor judgment. Dugan, in turn, charged the academy with sexual harassment, financial improprieties and questionable practices regarding voting and performers in the Grammys telecast.

But that was then and this is now, and Mason has persevered where others might have faltered. During his year of leadership, the academy has taken a number of important steps.

Last April, it hired Valeisha Butterfield Jones as the academy’s first chief diversity, equity and inclusion officer. In July, the academy began a partnership with Color of Change, the nation’s biggest online organization devoted to racial justice. In September,

the academy launched its Black Music Collective, an organization of prominent Black music creators and professionals seeking to spotlight Black voices in the academy and the broader music community at large.

In December, the partnership released its “Change Music Roadmap,” designed to help move the music industry toward “actionable racial justice.” The academy has also expanded its voting membership, which now numbers 12,000. On Monday, during an academy town hall meeting conducted on Zoom, Mason proudly noted that, of the 2,300 music professionals invited to join the academy in 2020, “over 48 percent (are) female, 37 percent Black/ Indigenous/people of color (and) 51 percent under age 40.”

What is he most proud of having accomplished in the midst of so much tumult?

“We’ve made changes to how we bring in new members,” he said. “We’ve made changes on how we constitute our board. We’ve made exciting changes around our diversity, equity and inclusion policies and procedures. We’ve made changes to our leadership and our staff. We’ve made changes to our awards and our rule book, many of our transparency questions have been answered, and we’ve strengthened our conflict-of-interest policies. So, there’s a lot of things I’m very proud of — and there’s still a lot more I’d like to do.”

One of Mason’s goals is helping select a new CEO and president, which he expects to announce by May. He is now forging ahead with the 2021 edition of the Grammys, which will be held in a revamped form next Sunday after being postponed from Jan. 31 because of the coronavirus pandemic.

The Grammy Awards Premiere Ceremony, which will feature performances by San Diego-bred nominees Gregory Porter and Anoushka Shankar, will stream live at noon next Sunday on grammy.com. The annual Musicares fundraising concert will stream Friday on the same website, with performances by Common, BTS, Jhené Aiko and others.

Could the Grammys be pushed back again, should health concerns require it?

“While we continue to be cautiously optimistic, absolutely nothing is more important than the health and safety of those in our music community and the people who work tirelessly on producing the show,” Mason said. “On the road to the new show date, we are of course following Los Angeles County safety guidelines for the latest information on COVID-19 and safety precautions, and will be doing the utmost to put on what will be an excellent and safe show.”

Because of his busy schedule, Mason answered questions by email, rather than phone. Here are edited excerpts from our interview. For the complete Q&A, go to sandiegounion tribune.com/entertainment/ music.

Q:

Most people who are not part of the music world only know the Recording Academy in relation to the Grammys, not as a year-round organization that does many different things, from Musicares to lobbying Congress and working with music educators and young student musicians. What does the academy do, day in and day out, that you are most proud of?

A:

The Recording Academy is the world’s leading society of music professionals and our role is to, quite literally, foster year-round support of music creators. We are a membershipdriven organization at our core, and the main mission of the academy is to advocate for, and champion, the many members of our music community. Doing this looks like many different things. We celebrate artistic excellence through the Grammy Awards — music’s only peer-recognized accolade and highest achievement. We honor music’s history while investing in its future through the Grammy Museum and many other initiatives that support the development of music creators. We advocate for fair laws and rights on behalf of music creators.

And probably most importantly, we support music people in times of need with our partner Musicares, which is the leading music charity. Since March 2020, Musicares has distributed more than $22 million to help more than 25,000 music people

george.varga@sduniontribune.com