The Sound of Exclusion

I’ve just returned from several performances at the Salzburger Festspiele, including the Concert of Nations. The music was extraordinary, virtuosic, precise, transcendent. But something was impossible to ignore: the overwhelming lack of representation on stage.

At an event meant to celebrate the music of nations, the homogeneity was striking. In 2025, it is painfully clear that classical music still has a long way to go in making inclusion more than a slogan.

Watching performance after performance, I found myself torn between awe and unease. The artistry was breathtaking, yet the absence of visible diversity was just as loud. It made the silence between movements feel heavier. In a global festival that draws the world’s finest musicians, where were the faces of the world?

This experience reinforced for me why the work we do at Project STEP is so critical. STEP creates pathways for young musicians of color to not only access classical music, but to thrive and lead in it. The program doesn’t exist to “fix” diversity statistics; it exists to reshape who feels entitled to belong in this art form at all.

What happens in Boston reverberates far beyond our city. The need for this work is not just national; it’s global. Representation is not a regional issue. It’s a cultural one. When entire generations of young artists look at the world’s most prestigious stages and don’t see themselves, it sends a quiet but devastating message: This isn’t for you.

It should be.

The Salzburger Festspiele has the influence to set a global standard for inclusion. But so far, it hasn’t. Which means the work continues with us, with programs like Project STEP, with teachers, with donors, and with anyone willing to see equity not as an add-on but as the essence of artistic excellence itself.

Representation isn’t charity. It’s authenticity. And in the arts, authenticity is everything.

So we’ll keep pushing.