Finally, he recalls, "I realized that I didn't make sense in her world. There was no way that someone from the hood in Park Heights Terrace could be a classical musician without some explanation." Stuart told the woman that his great-grandfather was Scottish. "That seemed to satisfy her."
In interviews with several African-American musicians, similar anecdotes were common. A particularly frequent experience involves assumptions made about black classical players that would not be made of whites.
Terrence Wilson, a pianist on the Ritz roster, has lost count of the orchestra administrators who ask him if he plays jazz. "My standard reply now is, 'No, do you?' " he says.
Violinist Juliette Jones, who graduated from Peabody last year, offers another example: "I've had people come up to me and say, 'Oh, you're black, you must like soul music.' Classical music is some of the most soulful music there is. I feel this music has chosen me."
'It's a lonely world'
When cellist Esther Mellon joined the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra in 1977, there were two other African-Americans on the roster. They've since retired. Her singularity seems all the more striking in a city whose population is nearly two-thirds African-American.
"It's a lonely world that you have to get used to," Mellon says.
The BSO engages many black guest artists and collaborates frequently with the famed Morgan State University Choir. But an outreach program that took the BSO into predominantly black neighborhoods ended seven years ago, around the same time the BSO's diversity committee disbanded. Although the orchestra's staff is diverse, the BSO has no African-American on its board of directors.
(The Soulful Symphony, an affiliate of the BSO, is a mostly African-American orchestra founded by Darin Atwater to perform his own music. The ensemble does not focus on standard classical repertoire.)
The BSO's board agreed in September on a new strategic plan that calls for "an institutional priority to increase engagement with African-American and other communities, and to increase diversity amongst staff, board and audiences," says BSO President/CEO Paul Meecham.
The Sphinx Organization's Dworkin advocates the establishment of minority fellowships that would allow players to develop their skills and then have an opportunity to audition for a full-time position.
Orchestra musicians typically audition behind a screen for the first round or two.
