Join us for our second #BlackVoicesMatter panel, streaming live on Tuesday, February 23 at 7:00 p.m.

A companion to the first panel held last August, the event features Tiana Sorenson, soprano and founding member of Aperi Animam; Yelley Taylor, violist and artistic director of D-Composed; and LaRob Payton, bass-baritone and artistic director of Hearing in Color; who will engage in a dialogue on their experiences working as Black musicians in the classical music field. The panelists will share their perspectives on issues within the industry and discuss the various professional endeavors they’re engaged in that seek to promote diversity, inclusion, and equity in classical music.

The event will conclude with a brief question-and-answer section, though it must be emphasized that this will not be an opportunity to ask the panelists to provide solutions to systemic racism. This time is reserved for questions related to their lives and work.

#BlackVoicesMatter is intended to INFORM the classical music community—audience, musicians, music educators, arts administrators—in Milwaukee and abroad of the realities of systemic racism in the classical music industry and to AMPLIFY Black voices and their continued strides in the pursuit of diversity, inclusion, and equity in this particular field of work. By informing and amplifying, the event aims to inspire others to not only support the panelists’ work and the work of others like them, but also to motivate those who tune in to reflect and implement their own unique ways to address systemic racism in their communities, lives, and work.