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Our mission
is to create new audiences
for classical music
We invite musicians around the world to become Artist Advocates to eradicate social and climate injustice from our profession.
Concert Theatre Works is the first organization pledging to exclusively collaborate with orchestras in North America who are members of the Sphinx National Alliance for Audition Support. If they are not members of the NAAS, we ask that they join. If they cannot, we write the first check in their name. We have been enrolling orchestras since 2020 in this scheme, and we invite everyone to follow us.
Is your orchestra enrolled?
Anyone – soloist, conductor, composer, instrumentalist, singer, audience member – can do the same. Please read on.
THE VISION
Once musicians finish their training, they must embark on an expensive series of auditions to win the orchestral jobs that form the backbone of a successful career. A chief reason why racial representation in American and European orchestras remains stubbornly low is the inability for excellent musicians of colour to travel the audition circuit and win jobs.
Concert Theatre Works is determined to catalyse global change by helping create a new European Alliance for Audition Support in London with the Chineke! Foundation. Together with the Sphinx National Alliance, this would work to address systemic racism that has long plagued classical music.
Both alliances work by subscription: partner orchestras subscribe and pay a small annual fee, which provides money for audition grants (among other activities). An audition can cost between $1,000-$4,000, and musicians often need a dozen or more to find their first big job.
The problem isn’t talent, but opportunity.
Our mission is for every European orchestra to become a member of the Chineke! alliance, and every North American orchestra to be a member of NAAS, which already has 130+ partner orchestras (up from 88 in 2020).
We are building a future where 1000 musical ensembles contribute annually to the NAAS, which would 10x the audition grants, rapidly bringing equitable representation to our beloved sector.
THE CHALLENGE
Concert Theatre Works acknowledges that we are a predominately white organization that rehearses and tours within a history of marginalization of minority peoples. We know that silence and neutrality can constitute passive actions of harmful complicity to Black, Latine and AAPI artists.
There is no denying that a more inclusive, diverse, equitable, safe, well-paid and unionised workforce, will make the most convincing case for the attraction and retention of talent and audiences to sustain the art that we love.
OUR PLEDGE
How can we build a future audience for music without a safe, clean environment? We commit to banning single-use plastics and encourage our partners to undertake green building assessments.
Concert Theatre Works is a gun-free organization. We exclusively work in explicitly gun-free buildings with the exception of security personnel.
Our stories touch on the defining conversations of our time. We embrace our responsibility to catalyse positive change through our work, particularly when it is difficult to do so. We are committed to being an inclusive, pro-worker, pro-climate and anti-racialism organization.
We dedicate ourselves to demonstrating the vital relevance of live music and music-making in a digital age. Through innovative interdisciplinary programs, education, and advocacy of marginalized voices, we hope to inspire our sector to combine artistic disciplines in order to reveal stories behind great music. We aim to ignite curiosity, inspire passion, and deliver large emotional experiences that create a powerful and lasting appreciation for the live performing arts.
Have something to say? TELL US.
We invite robust dialogue, openness, intersectionality, and disagreement among our artists, audiences, and colleagues in order to hold us accountable as we pursue art that speaks directly to this issue today.
