BRATTLEBORO — The Brattleboro Music Center is launching the EOS (Educate. Open. Strengthen.) Project, as a direct response to questions about social justice as it pertains to the world of classical music and institutions like itself.
Developed and led by BMC faculty member Heather Sommerlad, EOS is envisioned as a collaborative effort of BMC Music School faculty and other local musicians to actively seek out and intentionally study and perform music by composers who are “Black, Indigenous, and People of Color, as well as composers who identify as anything other than cisgender male,” according to a news release announcing the project.
“EOS is not about inclusivity, since inclusivity shouldn't be a project, and music isn't a space we can claim. Rather, EOS is about education,” said BMC Executive Director Mary Greene.
“We're still going to play our Bach, our Haydn, and our Mozart. But we will also play our Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, our Florence Price, our George Walker. This list goes on, from composers who have intentionally been excluded historically, to living, emerging composers today.”
With the framework of the project, musicians “are opening ourselves to the reality of whose music exists, and whose voices should be heard,” the website says. “By exploring beyond what we consider 'familiar,' we strengthen ourselves and our community.”
“The EOS Project recognizes that as our country reckons with its history of oppression, we as individuals must work to understand our own implicit biases,” the BMC stated in a news release. “In the music world, bias can be seen in concert halls, both on stage and in the music performed. Composers of color, as well as composers who are not cis male, have historically been excluded from the musical canon.”
Greene said that “by learning, performing, and listening to music from outside the parameters of systemic oppression, we are educating ourselves, opening ourselves to the reality of whose music exists and whose voices should be heard. By exploring beyond what we consider 'familiar,' we strengthen ourselves and our community.”
An inaugural program on Nov. 8 program will include String Quartet in C minor, Op. 1, No. 4 by Chevalier de Saint-Georges, Joseph Bologne; Folksongs in Counterpoint by Florence Price; “Molto Adagio (Lyric for Strings),” from String Quartet No. 1 by George Walker; String Quartet No. 5, “Rosa Parks” by DBR (Daniel Bernard Roumain); and Strum by Jessie Montgomery.
Performers include Kathy Andrew, Heather Sommerlad, Emily Packard, Moby Pearson, and Zon Eastes.