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Balanced Programming with the INSTITUTE for COMPOSER DIVERSITY DIVERSITY Choral Works Database Search. Program.Perform. Repeat.

COMPOSER
INSTITUTE
for

toire decisions makes it much easier to achieve those • At least four works by women composers (at least two
goals (see below for more on benchmarks). of which are women of color)

5. AUDIENCE: Program to your potential audience as • At least four works by composers of color (at least two
well as to your usual attendees. of which are women)

6. LOCALITY: Remember that there are oftentimes For single-concert events (such as an All-State or All-
a sizable number of composers in your extended re- National festival for K-12 educators), ICD suggests at
gion—always consider how they could help you con- least one work by a woman composer and at least one
nect with your community if possible. work by a composer of color be included in each en-
semble’s concert if possible. These demographics are
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7. SUBSTANTIAL WORKS: Include more substan- able to overlap (e.g., a work by a living woman would
tial works by composers from historically excluded count as both a piece by a living composer and a wom-
groups in your program; too often works by women an composer).
composers and composers of color are shorter and
serve to start off a concert while longer, more extensive
works are reserved for composers from the traditional Working toward
canons. Balanced Programming
Programming “can explicitly and implicitly reflect
8. AVOID “3-OR-MORE”: Many ensembles will [an organization’s or a conductor’s] values, [their] pri-
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often perform multiple works by the same composer orities, and [their] cultural perspectives.” It is impor-
either in a special series or throughout their season. tant to be aware of what programming implicitly and
This practice has the unintentional consequence of re- explicitly communicates to ensemble members and
moving space in a concert season that could be used audiences. When developing the program rationale
to feature works by women composers and composers and balance, consider representing the identities of the
of color if done too frequently. While there’s nothing members of the ensemble and presenting the audience
wrong with an occasional focus on any one composer, with multiple perspectives.
balance should be given to ensure that other voices are Working toward equity in music programming re-
heard as well. quires developing cultural intelligence and cultural
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To this end, ICD includes several programming competency. Cultural intelligence can be defined as
goals on the suggested Best Practices webpage. These “an outsider’s seemingly natural ability to interpret
goals include programming (1) a minimum of a quar- someone’s unfamiliar and ambiguous gestures the way
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ter of a season with works by living composers and (2) a that person’s compatriots would,” while cultural com-
quarter by women composers and by composers of col- petency is “the ability of individuals and systems to
or combined (with as equal a distribution as possible). work or respond effectively across cultures in a way that
Suggested minimum benchmarks for composers iden- acknowledges and respects the culture of the person or
tifying in the LGBTQIA2S+ community are not given organization being served.” Cultural intelligence and
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in order to protect the privacy of composers, many of cultural competency need to be lifelong learning goals
whom have not publicly identified themselves within both for conductors personally as well as for the collec-
such demographic groups. As an example, choral pro- tive choral community. It is a challenging but critical
grams presenting a season with a total of twenty-five task that demands radical courage and vulnerability.
works would include: There are many places to begin; the ICD suggested
Best Practices described above provide eight different
• At least six works by living composers springboards. Other recommendations are (1) for con-
ductors to learn about the history and performance

CHORAL JOURNAL March/April 2023 Volume 63 Number 7 57