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Silent No More:  Anti-Asian Racism in Music 

Eileen M. Hayes

This is a story of my complicity in corporate silence, but also one of recognition and intervention.  This month I address manifestations of racism toward Asians and Asian Americans in music schools/ departments and at meetings of our professional societies.  Reports of anti-Asian incidents have increased since the U.S. President’s reference to the virus with a racist moniker.  In response, cultural, industry, and political leaders, including President Obama, expressed outrage, and warned against a possible rise in anti-Asian sentiment. A BBC News report in May 2020 referenced incidents that posed threats to the safety and dignity of Asians, in the aftermath of the current president’s feckless remark.  More recently, the online ecosystem has also been the site of anti-Asian racism.

My story is told through a very personal lens and engages in more self-disclosure than is customary for Society presidents.  At times, I have remained silent in my role as bystander to the incivility I have witnessed in our music spaces.  Unlike Gennica Cochran, the server at the restaurant in Carmel, CA, whose interruption of a racist tirade against Asian patrons went viral in July, I have not always intervened. Asian-Americans have impressive and long-standing histories of resisting racial oppression in the U.S.  This includes many Asian and Asian American scholars, educators, composers, and performers in music in higher education today.  Identifying and addressing manifestations of anti-Asian prejudice in music is a key component of CMS’ goal of becoming an anti-racist Society. 

Anti-Asian sentiment came home to roost, in music, in January 2020.  East Asian students at the Santa Cecilia Conservatory in Rome were told by the head of school that after the break, they would not be allowed to return to the classroom until cleared by a medical exam required by the Conservatory.¹  The Director’s ban of the students was met with strong pushback from the campus community, with many students stating that they had never been to China. This incident is a learning moment for music in the context of the pandemic.  Had you been the director, a student or faculty member, what would you have done? 

The return to campus is of paramount concern to our members.  Health and safety are key determinants in decisions about performance offerings for the Fall.  CMS and The CMS Fund are two of nearly 100 organizations and institutions supporting a research study of aerosol projection now being conducted by research scientists at Colorado University-Boulder. The founding organizations of the study are CBDNA and NFHS. The preliminary findings of the study can be found here.

CMS has begun gathering aggregate demographic data on our membership which will aid the Society’s efforts to engage its equity and opportunity initiatives . Please log in to your account to update your information.

Our voices make a difference.  The CMS Board of Directors recently authorized the signing of a statement in support of exempting international students from the requirement of face-to-face study in enrolled programs. Within days of CMS’ signing the statement, the federal government reversed its ruling.  The statement that CMS signed, drafted by SEM President Timothy Cooley, was endorsed also by SAM, SMT, SEM, and AMS; many of our sister music societies and institutions of higher learning sent similar appeals.

Conference Registration is now in full swing for the Sixty-Third national CMS conference, scheduled for October 9-11 and 16-18. Please check out the conference website for information on keynote addresses, special plenary sessions, discussion groups, etc. Highlights will include the following:

• A timely conversation:  The conference will feature a Presidential Plenary panel discussion that provides a retrospective view of the Report of the Undergraduate Curriculum Task Force (2014). To provide additional information for the panelists, please complete this survey that will gather data regarding curricular changes in music curricula during these past years. 
• Be sure to attend: Joseph H. Conyers, Associate Principal bassist with the Philadelphia Orchestra will offer a keynote address at our upcoming virtual conference.
• Don’t miss this: A feature of this year’s conference will be a panel on Equity and Opportunity in Music, sponsored jointly by the program committee, PKL, the Yamaha corporation, and CMS president. Panelists will include: Music theorist, Philip Ewell; Composer, Valerie Coleman; Economist, Nathan D. Grawe; and a member of the Yamaha leadership team.
• See you there:  Join the membership for “A Conversation with Tania Leon,” the Robert M. Trotter Lecturer for 2020.  We are eager to hear from this distinguished composer and conductor.

Six musicians-health related webinars are now scheduled for the 2020-2021 academic year.