Just listened to Sibelius ... [View all]

... his fifth and third symphonies. I love Sibelius, especially those two symphonies, and the violin concerto, and I could put The Swan of Tuonela on a loop and listen to it all day. However ...

One thing I always wonder about classical music is, Why is it always only White people? Those two orchestras had not a single Black face in them. There might have been one or two Asians in there, but why do Black people never have anything to do with classical music?

Somewhere on YouTube there's a recording of ... I think it's one of Beethoven's piano concertos or symphonies, and Leonard Bernstein is conducting the Vienna Philharmonic that has not only all White people, but also, only men. This really bothers me, and it's why I'll never again watch a Leonard Bernstein/Vienna Philharmonic performance of anything.

I hope it's not inappropriate for me to be bringing this up, but I don't believe it is. I think it's perfectly appropriate to note something that is of obvious sociological significance and to try to identify what that sociological phenomenon is. Why do Black people never have anything to do with classical music?

-- Ron