Latest news with #EquityArc
CBS News
06-04-2025
- Entertainment
- CBS News
Equity Arc teens join Civic Orchestra members to kick off Chicago Youth and Music Festival
A group of teens played in harmony despite the president's DEI executive order. They played alongside Civic Orchestra members to kick off the Chicago Youth and Music Festival, where a packed crowd praised them before they even performed. Music is a universal language. It's not defined by the color of your skin, which is what Equity Arc wants listeners to take away from Sunday's performance. Jacob Cornejo, 18, has been playing the flute since he was in the fifth grade. "I feel, through the flute, I'm able to express what I'm feeling, and I can share my music and the music that's written on the paper with the audience," he said. Cornejo is one of 60 students in the Equity Arc program, a nonprofit organization that provides mentoring and support for young musicians of color. Inside the symphony center, they performed next to Civic Orchestra members, giving a free concert. "We're very excited to have some of the most talented students from across the country, many of them that are representing Chicago, with us, that really represents the extraordinary talent that we have for those that are seeking a professional career in classical music," Equity Arc Executive Director Stanford Thompson said. The teens were supposed to perform "The President's Own," a concert with the United States Marine Band in May, but that opportunity was taken away. An executive order signed by President Trump banned programs for diversity, equity, and inclusion throughout the federal government and military. In March, 60 Minutes brought the teens to Washington, D.C. , to ask about the canceled concert. They answered in song. "The color of your skin doesn't matter, you know. You're White, you're Black, you're Brown; you should be able to share the music or do what you love," Cornejo said. This performance kicks off the Chicago Youth and Music Festival. Chicago Symphony Orchestra has a Connect program, in which it works with CPS schools and community youth orchestras to rehearse with Civic Orchestra members. Equity Arc helps student musicians connect with mentors from across the country and provides professional development opportunities, including internships and mock auditions.
Yahoo
17-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Marine Band Vets Join Student Musicians Whose Concert Was Canceled by White House Due to Anti-DEI Policy
The post Marine Band Vets Join Student Musicians Whose Concert Was Canceled by White House Due to Anti-DEI Policy appeared first on Consequence. Last year, the Chicago-based nonprofit Equity Arc organized a program that invited 30 teenage musicians to perform with the United States Marine Band, a long running federal institution that was founded in 1798. The concert was supposed to take place on May 4th, but thanks to Donald Trump's wave of executive orders targeting DEI initiatives, it was indefinitely canceled. However, thanks to a group of Marine Band veterans, the concert went forward anyway. As profiled on Sunday's episode of 60 Minutes, the initiative began after the United States Marine Band contacted Equity Arc in 2022. The Marines were looking to foster music education for the youth and reach out to young musicians of color, as today's American orchestras remain overwhelmingly White (80% White, 11% Asian, 5% Hispanic and 2% Black). The resulting collaboration saw about 60 teenage musicians virtually audition for a chance to play and study with the band, with about half being selected for the trip to Washington D.C. But because it was a program focused on diversity and inclusion, one of Trump's day-one executive orders (Ending Radical and Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferencing) mandated its cancellation. 'As long as the executive order is in place, we will not be able to reschedule,' Equity Arc's Stan Thompson wrote in an email to the Marine Band's commanding officer. 'I am really sorry to be the bearer of this news.' In response to the program's cancellation, and to the intentions behind the executive order as a whole, the 30 musicians and Equity Arc planned a makeup concert. After 60 Minutes flew them out to conduct interviews for the profile — a common practice of the news program — Equity Arc organized rehearsals and booked a concert hall. In place of the official Marine Band, who were ordered to stand down, former members of the United States Marine Band filled in instead. 'I just felt like, well, there's usually two responses to something. You can complain about it, or you could do something about it. I chose the latter within seconds. And it was the easiest decision ever,' John Abbracciamento, retired Marine Band trumpeter, said. After being asked about how he thought the current band members felt about the executive order, he replied, 'I know them like the back of my hand. So, I don't think it's too much for me to go out on a limb to say how disappointed they were.' 'I challenge anyone, literally anyone, to come to me and say by having this concert does damage to the United States,' he continued. 'It doesn't. It brings out the best of us.' Watch the full 60 Minutes profile on the Equity Arc program and makeup concert below. Marine Band Vets Join Student Musicians Whose Concert Was Canceled by White House Due to Anti-DEI Policy Jonah Krueger Popular Posts JD Vance Booed at Kennedy Center Dropkick Murphys Make On-Stage Wager with Trump Supporter Over Where His Shirt Was Made Documentary Claims Jim Morrison Is Alive, Living in Syracuse Lady Gaga on Meeting Trent Reznor: "I Black Out Every Time I'm in His Presence" Gene Simmons Charging $12,500 To Be His Personal Assistant and Roadie for One Day j-hope of BTS Makes Triumphant Return with Solo Tour "Hope on the Stage": Review Subscribe to Consequence's email digest and get the latest breaking news in music, film, and television, tour updates, access to exclusive giveaways, and more straight to your inbox.
Yahoo
17-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
'60 Minutes' Profiles Collateral Damage Of Trump's War On DEI: Students Of Color Who Were Denied Chance To Play With U.S. Marine Band
60 Minutes took aim President Trump's war on diversity, equity and inclusion Sunday by focusing on the collateral damage of his controversial executive order — a group of young Black, Hispanic, Indian and Asian musicians who were denied the chance to play with the U.S. Marine Band this year. Last year, the band — founded in 1798 and nicknamed the 'President's Own' by Thomas Jefferson — collaborated with a Chicago-based nonprofit that supports student musicians of color by giving them a chance to audition for the orchestra. More from Deadline CBS Warns That FCC Action On '60 Minutes' Complaint Would Create "A Less Free World" Where Government Becomes "A Roving Censor" Lesley Stahl Accepts First Amendment Award Amid Attacks On '60 Minutes': "We Are Standing And Fighting For What Is Right" Paramount Global & CBS Seek Dismissal Of Donald Trump's '60 Minutes' Lawsuit: "An Affront To The First Amendment" The plan was for this select group of youths to perform with their adult counterparts at a concert in May, according to the report by Scott Pelley. But Trump's executive order against diversity programs forced them to scuttle the performance — depriving the youths of the unique opportunity. 'If we're a society that's suppressing art, we're a society that is afraid of what it might reveal about itself. If we're suppressing music, we're suppressing emotions, we're suppressing expression, we're suppressing vulnerability, we're suppressing the very essence of what makes us human,' said Rishab Jain, an 18-year-old, Harvard-bound Indian American who was among the 30 students selected to play. 'We are devaluing our own humanity. We are degrading our own humanity.' Jain was among almost 60 students nationwide who responded to the audition call from Equity Arc, the nonprofit that worked with the Marine band. Equity Arc was formed to help boost diversity in American orchestras, 80% of which are white, 11% are Asian, 5% are Hispanic and only 2% are Black. Pelley reported that the Marine Band's commanding officer wrote Equity Arc's Stan Thompson to say 'as long as the executive order is in place, we will not be able to reschedule.' So 60 Minutes — whose parent company announced last month that it was rolling back some of its own DEI policies — decided to stage its own concert, instead. The CBS newsmagazine gathered the youths along with retired musicians from the Army, Navy, Air Force, Coast Guard, Westpoint, the Naval Academy and the Marines to perform at a concert hall rented by Equity Arc. Sunday's episode showed the orchestra playing 'Gallop' by Dimitri Shostakovich under the leadership of conductor Rodney Dorsey of Florida State University. 'I challenge anyone, literally, anyone to come to me and say by having this concert does damage to the United States,' said John Abbracciamento, a retired trumpet player from the Marine Band who volunteered to play with the youths. 'It doesn't. It brings out the best of us.' Their full concert can be found here. Best of Deadline TV Show Book Adaptations Arriving In 2025 So Far Book-To-Movie Adaptations Coming Out In 2025 Everything We Know About 'Freakier Friday' So Far
CBS News
16-03-2025
- Entertainment
- CBS News
What musicians did after an executive order on DEI led to the cancellation of U.S. Marine Band collaboration
The United States Marine Band was founded in 1798. Thomas Jefferson gave it its nickname, "The President's Own." Today, 135 Marines still perform the score of the White House from parties to inaugurations. So, there was excitement, last year, when the Marines judged a contest for teenage musicians. The winners would perform with the band. Thirty students were chosen. The concert was scheduled. But, last month, it was cancelled. President Trump had issued his executive order against diversity programs, and the young musicians were Black, Hispanic, Indian and Asian. Because they were silenced, many wanted to hear them including veterans of military bands who gathered in an improvised orchestra of equity that you might call America's own. This past Sunday, at the music center at Strathmore, near Washington, 22 students who had lost their chance to play tuned up with the military band veterans for the concert that was not meant to be heard. This music had been planned for the cancelled concert. "Nobles of the Mystic Shrine" by John Philip Sousa. Sousa directed the Marine Band a century and a half ago and composed "Stars and Stripes Forever," the great classic in the songbook of patriots. Rishab Jain: We're a land that prides itself on being the land of the free, the home of the brave. And I believe that just as much as anyone else does. But for that, we need these different perspectives. We need to see how others think. 18-year-old Rishab Jain was among the students barred from playing with the Marines. He was born in America to Indian parents—a high school senior accepted at Harvard. Rishab Jain: If we're a society that's suppressing art, we're a society that is afraid of what it might reveal about itself. If we're suppressing music, we're suppressing emotions, we're suppressing expression, we're suppressing vulnerability, we're suppressing the very essence of what makes us human. We are devaluing our own humanity. We are degrading our own humanity. Scott Pelley: You don't seem to believe in limitations. Rishab Jain: Absolutely not. There were no limitations but talent, last year, when Rishab Jain and about 60 others, nationwide, posted auditions for the Marines to judge. Zakyya McClenny uploaded her clarinet from Pennsylvania. Scott Pelley: Did you think you were gonna be chosen? Zakyya McClenny: Yes! Scott Pelley: You have a lot of confidence. Zakyya McClenny: I do. Scott Pelley: Why did you think you were gonna be chosen? Zakyya McClenny: I live my life with a lot of confidence. She was right. Zakyya was chosen. She and all the contestants had been organized by a Chicago-based nonprofit called Equity Arc, which connects student musicians of color with mentors and opportunities. and here's why — American orchestras today are 80% White, 11% Asian, 5% Hispanic and 2% bBack. No wonder that in 2022, Equity Arc's executive director got an unexpected call. Scott Pelley: The Marines called you? Stanford Thompson: Yes. They called Stanford Thompson to ask how the band could reach out to musicians of color. It's part of the band's mission to educate youth. Stanford Thompson: So in that phone call with the Marine Band I shared with them a lot of ideas, a lot that we have learned as an organization. And when I got off the phone, it was just-- it was crazy. It was, like, "Wait. Let me call this guy back, because I should be offering a way or some ideas that Equity Arc and the Marine Band could work together." We identified this high school age, this pre-college age where a lot of musicians of color drop off. We came up with the idea of, "Can we bring a select group that we would audition through a competitive process to Washington to be able to spend a couple of days with the band?" The 'couple of days' were supposed to look like this. Top music students, like Zakaya McClenny, learning from the best. Their wind symphony was set for this May 4th. Until President Trump's executive order banning programs for diversity. President Trump: We've ended the tyranny of so-called Diversity, Equity and Inclusion policies all across the entire federal government and indeed the private sector and our military. And our country will be woke no longer! The president says he is building a "color blind, merit based" society --a reaction to what many saw as progressive politics gone too far. His order was comprehensive, calling diversity programs "illegal and immoral discrimination" and an "immense public waste." But that executive order is just the beginning. All across the government, President Trump is rolling back 60 years of discrimination protections for women, older Americans, the disabled and people of color. Trump rescinded President Johnson's 1965 ban on employment bias. He closed the Social Security Office of Civil Rights and fired leaders of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, or EEOC, which investigates bias in the workplace. Cari Dominguez: I think we're at a pivotal moment in our society. And we have to make a decision as to which way do we want to go. Cari Dominguez chaired the EEOC for George W. Bush. Her family fled Cuba when she was 12. Scott Pelley: The argument behind the executive order is that America has eliminated racism, that no one in this country is held back by race any longer. Cari Dominguez: The data would not support that. The data, Dominguez told us, shows that the EEOC handles around 100,000 discrimination claims from Americans each year. Scott Pelley: The executive order calls the kinds of programs that you used to enforce quote, "immoral." Cari Dominguez: I believe what is immoral is to deny people opportunities. I have witnessed individuals who have beautiful resumes. And they get an interview. They come in, you know, using a wheelchair, and all of a sudden the opportunity is gone. Denying people opportunities because of that lack of fairness is immor-- that's the immoral part. Fairness aside, in this email the Marine Band's commanding officer wrote Equity Arc's Stan Thompson, "as long as the executive order is in place, we will not be able to reschedule." "I am really sorry to be the bearer of this news." Stanford Thompson: My first thought was helplessness in a way and heartbreak. Scott Pelley: Did you have the sense that the concert was canceled because of the color of your skin? Rishab Jain: Absolutely. I mean, I couldn't think of another reason really. I had prepared. I had done everything I could to be at the top. And being Indian, I thought, yeah, what other reason would there be? Playing in harmony, despite the president's DEI executive order Any questions were answered this past week. The students gathered in Washington for rehearsals and the performance. 60 Minutes did what we often do, covered costs of plane tickets and travel to bring all of our interviewees to one place. Equity Arc decided to book the rehearsal space and the concert hall and try to replace the absent marine band—which turned out to be easy. John Abbracciamento: I just felt like, well, there's usually two responses to something. You can complain about it, or you could do something about it. I chose the latter within seconds. And it was the easiest decision ever. Easy for, John Abbracciamento and Jennifer Marotta, retired Marine Band trumpeters. Scott Pelley: Marines follow orders. They don't have to like them. What do you think the members of the band think of all of this? John Abbracciamento: I know them like the back of my hand. So, I don't think it's too much for me to go out on a limb to say how disappointed they were. With the active-duty Marines ordered to stand down, Equity Arc reached out to retirees who answered the call from everywhere, former band members of the Army, Navy, Air Force, Coast Guard, Westpoint, the Naval Academy and the Marines. Jennifer Marotta flew, on her dime, from LA. Jennifer Marotta: When I got that email, I looked at my schedule and I said, "I can move all of those things." I booked a flight. It was literally one week ago, and I'm here. John Abbracciamento: I challenge anyone, literally, anyone to come to me and say by having this concert does damage to the United States. It doesn't. It brings out the best of us. Scott Pelley: You were not meant to be here today. This ensemble was not meant to be heard. And I wonder what this moment on this stage means to your heart. Sean Mouzon: My name is Sean Mouzon, I'm here from Atlanta, Georgia. I'm a junior at Southwest DeKalb High School. One thing that units us all, is this, music. I'm here because I love it. No other reason than all these amazing, talented people. And I don't want this to be taken away from anybody because of someone else's personal opinion or just anything else besides why we like to do this. Vanessa Cabrera: My name is Vanessa Cabrera, I'm from Rockaway, New Jersey. We work hard to be here. We belong here. We have the talent to be here, and this is not just for us but for children and just people in the same situation that we are, that nobody can tell you what to do, if you put your mind to something that you can accomplish that. Ricardo Lazaro: My name is Ricardo Lazaro. I'm from San Antonio, Texas. I just want the world to be a better place. But it seems like we're slowly straying away from that. And we gotta make a change. And I believe everyone here is capable of doing that. But are we gonna do it? Julie Angelis Boehler: My name is Julie Angelis Boehler. I retired after 23 years as the timpanist of the U.S. Army Band, Pershing's Own. We need all of this, not just musically. Athletically, academically, we need diversity, equity, and inclusion. Thank you very much. The original Marine Band concert would have been seen by hundreds. Here, tonight, these musicians are being heard by millions. At the podium, Rodney Dorsey of Florida State University conducting "Gallop" by Dimitri Shostakovich—in the hands of a band that looks like America. Produced by Nicole Young and Kristin Steve. Broadcast associate, Michelle Karim. Edited by Warren Lustig. Editor's note: Last month Paramount Global, the parent company of CBS News, announced it was modifying some of its own DEI policies. The company said the changes were intended to comply with the shift in federal guidelines under the new presidential administration.
Washington Post
26-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Washington Post
Following executive orders, ‘The President's Own' Marine Band scraps concert
There is perhaps no band closer to the president's ear than the U.S. Marine Band, long known as 'The President's Own.' Founded in 1798 by an Act of Congress, it's the nation's oldest continuously active professional musical organization, with a stated, singular mission to 'perform music for the President of the United States and the Commandant of the Marine Corps.' The band's repertoire, therefore, is subject to the president's tastes, whims and, in the case of a May 4 concert that recently vanished from the schedule, executive orders. Last week, 'The President's Own' quietly canceled a concert program originally billed as the 'Equity Arc Wind Symphony.' The performance was to be the culmination of a 'multiday music intensive with musicians from 'The President's Own,'' and high school musician fellows selected through auditions organized by the Chicago-based Equity Arc, a nonprofit organization that provides 'specialized mentoring support for young BIPOC musicians' and 'helps institutions take meaningful steps toward equity and inclusion.' A spokesperson for the Marines confirmed in an email Tuesday afternoon that 'the Marine Band's participation in this event was canceled in accordance with recent Executive Orders.' Equity Arc's executive director Stanford Thompson and associate director Magee Capsouto confirmed in a phone interview that the cancellation impacts up to 30 young musicians from across the country who earned their spots through competitive virtual auditions and were to perform at the Rachel M. Schlesinger Concert Hall and Arts Center on the Northern Virginia Community College campus in Alexandria. 'We believe in the training and mentorship of these musicians, and being able to put them into spaces where they can learn what it's like to be a professional performing musician,' Thompson said. 'One of the things we've wanted to do is expose students to military careers, and we've seen nothing more powerful than when the musicians we work with have opportunities to sit side-by-side in rehearsal, performances and coaching.' 'The work that we're doing is focused so much on the musicians, their level of talent, their dedication for what they do, and the amount of work that they put in,' Capsouto added. Thompson also credited the U.S. Marine Band's commitment to education as key to the partnership between the organizations, and expressed concern that military bands across the country may find these types of outreach programs harder to accomplish. A previously released season announcement brochure is still available online, and bills the original May 4 'Equity Arc Wind Symphony Concert' as 'the expansion of Equity Arc's national programs for precollege musicians of color.' But on the official President's Own Marine Band calendar, the Equity Arc concert has been replaced with a program of unspecified film music titled 'May the 4th Be With You: Marine Band at the Movies.' The original Equity Arc Wind Symphony program assembled a mix of traditional Marine Band favorites: John Philip Sousa's 'Nobles of the Mystic Shrine,' Percy Grainger's 'Lincolnshire Posy' and Samuel A. Ward's 'America the Beautiful' would be performed alongside works by living composers, including one piece titled 'Let Freedom Ring' by Lt. Col. Ryan Nowlin, who was slated to conduct at the concert (along with Capt. Darren Y. Lin and guest conductor Rodney Dorsey, a professor of music at Florida State University College of Music). Also scheduled for the program was 'Sweet Chariot,' a piece by Kennedy Center composer-in-residence Carlos Simon; 'Bravado,' a 2023 work for wind band from composer Gala Flagello; Michael Brignolo's wind arrangement of Grammy-winner Gabriela Ortiz's 'Kauyumari'; and 'Rising Light,' a work by Kevin Charoensri, a Thai American from San Diego who is studying music composition at the University of Texas at Austin. Charoensri, 21, posted his own announcement of the cancellation to his Facebook page on Sunday. 'It has come to my attention that the program, one based on equity and diversity of voices, is no longer supported at the federal level under this administration,' the post reads, 'and it was for this reason that the program and performance were canceled.' 'I look forward to the day where my music, and the diverse voices of composers like myself, will once again be welcomed on the national stage,' he wrote. In an phone interview on Monday, Charoensri said he received a call Friday morning from leadership of 'The President's Own.' 'They simply said that due to the executive orders impacting DEI-related programing for several agencies, the Marine Band was instructed to cancel the collaboration and therefore cancel the entire concert.' The cancellation comes amid a flurry of questions surrounding the fate of other programming at the federal level that could run afoul of a series of executive orders issued by President Donald Trump aimed at 'Ending Illegal Discrimination And Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity' and 'Ending Radical And Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferencing.' But where recent cancellations at the Kennedy Center have come via the decisions of the artists themselves or following financial determinations reportedly unrelated to the orders, the cancellation of the Equity Arc concert is among the first cultural performances specifically halted by the administration's efforts against 'DEI' initiatives at the federal level. Charoensri composed 'Rising Light' in 2022 at 19, deeply troubled by his mother's fear following a wave of anti-Asian hate crimes in the wake of the covid-19 pandemic. He created a bristling musical response — one that moves from mournful meditations into a passage of defiant claps and stomps. 'I wanted the piece to be a non-apologetic piece of the celebration of Asian American culture as one,' he said, 'while also being a peaceful but loud protest.' Reached by email, Simon said he was 'deeply disappointed and concerned' that his composition 'Sweet Chariot' — which incorporates influences from African American spirituals as well as Gregorian chants — was removed from Marine Band program, 'on the basis of initiatives that were meant to bring us together, not tear us apart.' 'As an African-American, I have heard spirituals and songs that are rooted in the Black experience all my life,' Simon wrote. 'My intent in writing this piece was to show that regardless of race, gender or class, we all have to live and die. The quotations ('Swing Low' and 'In Paradisum') are taken from two totally different cultures, but yet speak about the same thing in different ways. I think that it's important for artists bridge these gaps that divide us and to start (and finish) discussions about our differences.' 'I think it's hurtful and it's wrong,' Charoensri said of the decision to cancel. '[Capt.] Darren Lin made it perfectly clear that I was on this program because of my own merit and what I stand for as a person and a composer, not because they had a quota to fill,' he said on Monday. 'It was incredibly hurtful to see that my piece, and honestly, me as a person — because they go hand-in-hand, especially with a piece like this — were categorized into this giant hammer swing that had no targets. It was like a blind swing.' But Charoensri, currently a composition student at the University of Texas at Austin, expresses the most regret over the lost opportunity for the high school musicians 'who have all lost a substantial part of their music education.' 'This is not about me, it's about a bigger cause,' he said. 'I will get another chance to hear this piece at some point. I have the privilege and the luxury of that. These high school seniors, they will never be able to do this again.' 'It's unfortunate that we've got caught between all of this, and that these young musicians won't have a chance to rehearse in the barracks and get to know the musicians, to have the parents and families in D.C.,' says Thompson. 'With everything that's going on, this was going to be a really big, bright spot.'
