Racial / Ethnic and Gender Diversity in the Orchestra Field

Sep 01, 2016

League of American Orchestras;

For all cultural institutions, knowledge and information are becoming critical tools in the work of navigating a course through this new landscape. In particular, there is a recognized value in learning from the past in order to inform action for the future. By offering a new baseline, Racial / Ethnic and Gender Diversity in the Orchestra Field provides a clear and comprehensive picture of the demographic composition of orchestras: musicians, conductors, board members, and staff. Of course, each orchestra has its own unique story to tell. Nonetheless, the field-wide data in this report provides an essential foundation for analysis, understanding, debate, and action.Our report looks back over nearly four decades of orchestra demographics data to present an analysis intended to promote learning and action among orchestra stakeholders, inform public dialogue, and serve as a stimulus for further research. In this report, we present an analysis of the following data sets:Musicians: Race and Ethnicity (1980-2014); Gender (1978-2014)Conductors: Race and Ethnicity (2006-2016); Gender (2006-2016)Staff: Race and Ethnicity (2010-2014); Gender (2010-2014)Board Members: Race andEthnicity (2010-2014); Gender (2010-2014)Our analysis is shaped by available data, and the terms that we use to categorize people by race, ethnicity, and gender reflect those employed within our data sources.