Concert day: the hallmark of every high school music experience. Dressed in fancy black attire, holding an instrument that shines under the glistening stage light, we cherish this moment when we can show our friends and family members how hard we’ve been working. But in the bands and orchestras of some schools, such as my own, concert day’s most noticeable feature is what it’s missing: diversity.
I didn’t notice it in ninth grade, and I didn’t know what to do about it in 10th. But now, I’m constantly reminded that in my majority-minority high school, over 90% of the students in my band are either White or Asian. Unfortunately, this problem is more widespread than most people think.
In a county racing towards equity, where students, teachers and administrators look to expand the opportunities once perceived socioeconomically and racially exclusive, instrumental music has failed to make progress. It’s time for the bands and orchestras of Montgomery County to take a hard look at themselves and ask, “What are we doing wrong?”
It’s easy to blame the lack of diversity on instruments themselves. While rising musical equipment costs have been a barrier to beginners, Montgomery County music departments have enough total funding to adequately subsidize instrument purchase fees. The problem is that schools don’t have an equal balance of this money.
Consider the Winston Churchill High School Music Department, which takes annual trips as far as Orlando, Florida to play at music conventions. With a mixture of music department cash and parent payments, students are able to cover hotel rooms and airplane fees, as well as the other costs associated with a cross-country trip.
And yet, there’s no point in decrying elitism at Churchill, which is located in the exceedingly wealthy area of Potomac, Maryland. School music departments are allowed to raise money outside of MCPS allocations, and they are allowed to send their students on trips paid by parent fees, so long as they use donations to assist students in need of financial assistance.
But in a county where some students can barely afford to buy their instruments and others are slugging $5,000 violins through BWI Airport, it’s crucial that we find a way to address the music inequality gap while allowing schools like Churchill to preserve their donations. Otherwise, indignant wealthy parents will make a mass exodus to private education before we know it.
One way of curbing the music inequality gap is by working with out-of-school bands and orchestras. Groups like the Potomac Valley Youth Orchestras and Young Artists of America, both of which I have been a part of, provide outstanding education to music students.
Unfortunately, these privatized groups prioritize profit over access, and their synergistic relationship with private teachers has left many low-income students barred from joining. For many years, Montgomery County youth orchestras have required that their members be taking private lessons, which are financially impossible for disadvantaged students. Removing the private teacher requirement and adding low-cost, introductory ensembles would be a step in the right direction.
Another way MCPS can reduce the inequality gap is by investing in, rather than taking money from, school fundraising projects. By working with high school band directors to design fundraising objectives, MCPS can use its resources to catalyze fundraising projects and donation drives. As stipulated by this assistance, MCPS can require that a certain cut of fundraising be sent to the county, which can then redistribute collected payments by school need during the middle of the year.
For example, if MCPS helps the “W” schools – a label assigned to wealthy high schools located in Potomac and Bethesda – then those schools would collect more money than they would on their own, even after giving a cut to MCPS.
But besides local private orchestras and the MCPS Board of Education, there is one more group that needs to commit to diversity: the Maryland Music Educators Association (MMEA). Every Spring, the MMEA hosts festivals at the district and state level, in which high school bands across Maryland showcase their work.
Unfortunately, school bands are only allowed to play music from a pre-approved MMEA list, and the vast majority of pieces on that infamous list are written by white composers. As a result, high school bands are incentivized to work on only two to three pieces of music a semester, all of which are typically written by white composers. Through reforming this list and increasing the required number of selections to six or seven, MMEA can incentivize high school band directors to work on a broad range of pieces from multiple cultures.
There’s no easy solution to fixing the socioeconomic, racial, or cultural inequalities in Montgomery County music. Like with any form of social change, students and teachers must accept that they will have to sacrifice their comfort for the greater good. Whether that entails a major change to festival, a marginal financial loss in fundraising, or a more treacherous learning curve in private orchestras, we all have to stay focused on diversity.
As enriching as concert day is, our first priority is to make it less exclusive.
Article by Shariar Vaez-Ghaemi of Montgomery Blair High School
Photo by Cathy Bowman of Winston Churchill High School