Racial Justice Statement

Winsor Music believes in the power of music to create community and build everlasting bonds between people. Our practices for the past twenty-three years have sought to connect and unite. As we think about the future of Winsor Music, racial justice is at the forefront of our minds and recent actions. The events of this spring have catalyzed an examination of our organization and our individual lives and through this process of investigation, introspection, and contemplation we are implementing changes that reflect Winsor’s core values.

It is a hopeful time for classical music as many organizations are going through a long overdue reckoning process. We recognize that, broadly speaking, classical music represents and propagates aspects of white supremacy. Our guiding questions as we examine Winsor and our initiatives are: How can we as individual musicians and as an organization redirect the narrative? How can we deconstruct systemic racism against all people of color and, in the immediate future with a focus on Black people?

We must implement anti-racist principles to ensure an equitable environment for our musicians, our listeners, our mentees, and our students as we create art together as a community. We want to let you, our friends and supporters, know about our plans moving forward, and to invite you to join us in examining these plans. 

Our Board: Winsor Music’s board of nine members includes two people of color one of whom is Black and the other Latinx. We are in an active search to further diversify our board with more members of the BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and People Of Color) community. 

Musician Engagement Practices: While Winsor’s musicians have been historically naturally diverse in many ways, not prioritizing racial diversity has resulted in several seasons without Black performers. We can and will do better, beginning immediately. We will continue to hire a broad range of musicians and pledge to intentionally hire Black performers. We will not only hire these musicians, but will also work to provide a safe, inclusive space where all musicians feel they can have a stake in the Winsor community as collaborators. 

Commissioning: Of Winsor’s approximately forty commissions, eight have been by people of color, two by a Black composer. Since the appointment of the new artistic directors in 2017, Winsor has prioritized commissions by women without regard to race. Going forward we will ensure our selections are racially as well as gender diverse beginning with a commission already in progress for this season. We look forward to detailed and dedicated research when choosing our commissioned composers, expanding our musical palette and learning more about the myriad styles of composers of color writing music today. 

Programming: We have worked to bring engaging pieces outside the classical music “canon” to our audience by composers of diverse backgrounds and will continue to present an even greater percentage of music by underrepresented voices. 

Scholarship Fund: Since 2005, we have offered summer scholarships to students of color to attend music camps. This program is a defining feature of Winsor Music and its mission and we will continue to expand this program. We will follow up with these students to learn about their musical experiences, and we look forward to getting to know them more fully as musicians and people.  

Educational Outreach: We have an ongoing educational relationship with the Mather School in Dorchester which is majority Black and Vietnamese. In addition, we have provided musical mentorship programs in which we play in chamber music ensembles with young musicians. We are in the process of reinvigorating this program to better reflect our current values. We recognize how important it is to be well-researched and to approach this kind of outreach with humility in order to have a positive outcome. 

Music for Healing Outreach: For the past few seasons, Winsor has played chamber music concerts in the lobby of the Shapiro Building of Beth Israel Hospital, free concerts available to all patients, caregivers, family members, staff, and medical workers. This program had to be halted in March. Since then, Winsor has been actively involved in the creation and implementation of the Boston Hope Music (BHM) program, an initiative bringing video recorded musical performances to patients recovering from COVID-19. BHM, though the Boston Hope Medical Center, initially served a significant number of patients from the Latinx community and additionally the homeless population. As the program moves forward, we are seeking to diversify our artist submissions, both in repertoire choices and our artists’ racial identities. 

Audience: We are committed to diversifying our audience by making our concerts more accessible to all. This includes exploring additional locations for our concerts and ways to eliminate financial barriers such as subsidized ticket pricing. We have a goal of implementing these changes in the 2021-22 season. We are working to be conscious of classical music concert practices that are potentially alienating, and want to reimagine what a welcoming concert space could look like. 

Our on-going personal education and self-examination will continue to provide us with increasing insight. We encourage you to join us in this work and to reach out to share resources.

We are all the richer in an equitable, inclusive environment where diverse voices are heard and valued. We can’t wait to listen along with you. 

Sincerely,

Gabriela Díaz
Rane Moore