Grant to sound note of diversity in orchestra
$50,000 grant will help recruit musicians
A $50,000 grant from the prestigious Andrew W. Mellon Foundation will help the Memphis Symphony Orchestra develop a program that coordinators say is intended to attract young musicians from Latin, African- American and other “underrepresented” communities to the orchestra.
The grant will enable the symphony to plan a “musician diversity fellowship” program, to recruit emerging professional musicians from conservatories and music schools to spend a year or two with the orchestra here, to participate in full performances, community events and so on.
“We hope that some of them would fall in love with the city and want to stay here,” said Rhonda Causie, a longtime MSO supporter and administrator, who is leading the fellowship’s planning team, with the assistance of Belinda Anderson, whose job title — Vice Chair of Diversity and Inclusion — testifies to the organization’s determination to attract musicians of all types.
Causie said much of the work of the symphony these days is “about community engagement,” so it is crucial to recruit minority players. “People, frankly, need to see musicians who look like they do, so they know this is music that speaks to everybody. The reality is we’ve failed to connect to a lot of people in the past.”
The hope is to develop, establish and sustain a Memphis Symphony Orchestra diversity fellowship program that is “unique and substantial” enough to become a known commodity in the symphony world, according to MSO board chair Gayle S. Rose.
She said the grant represented “a real investment in Memphis” from the Mellon Foundation, which has “an emphasis on diversity in the arts.” Once established, the diversity fellowship would require ongoing financial support, which could come from Mellon or other agencies.
Based in New York, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation is a private entity endowed by the Mellon family of Pittsburgh. Mellon grants can be as large as millions of dollars for a single project.