sM | How have the last 18 months—the pandemic, the political climate, and the social movements—informed your artistry?

AB — I think, first and foremost, that the pandemic has helped shape me as an artist. We have realized that life is so much deeper, and more meaningful, than we have given it credit to be. We’ve learned to have a deeper appreciation for family, and the day-to-day experiences that we love. Thinking about the fact that we have lost so much throughout the pandemic—time, energy, family, friends—it has personally made me more aware of how important it actually is to spread love through my music and to be true to who I am as an artist.

We are all aware of the Black Lives Matter protests, the deaths of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery—I’m sure you saw the news that the three white men who murdered him were convicted, which is, you know, really, really great. I grew up in Collinsville, Mississippi. My mom’s family is from Philadelphia, Mississippi, which is right next door. I went to elementary, middle school, and high school in Philadelphia. In 1964, there were these three civil-rights workers who were killed in my hometown, two guys from New York—two Jewish men—and then one Black guy from Meridian, Mississippi. They came down in 1964 as part of the Freedom Riders. They were killed by the KKK. I grew up having a very deep understanding of what happened, hearing the stories from my family members who knew the family of the guy from Meridian. I grew up a few miles away from the Baptist church that was burned to the ground. The craziest thing is that when I left Mississippi and moved to New York in 2005, that was the year that the head Klansmen was actually convicted for those murders. That type of ‘racial energy’ and bigotry really ran deep in that area.

Thinking about all of the events that have happened recently, as well as my childhood, I feel that it is extremely important to stay true to my inner voice. I grew up listening to soul, gospel, R&B, and hip-hop. Classical audiences tend to think of classical music as being completely separate from those genres. But I feel that it is very important, as a Black composer, to show that there is another perspective on this thing that we call ‘classical music.’ The more optimistic side of me thinks that classical music has always encompassed a great deal of variety, in terms of expression. In a non-political sense, it’s the conservative forces within orchestral music that want to make it something specifically this or that.

sM | How do you define the barriers existing for people of colour in orchestral spaces? And who are some of the forces for good?

That is a hard question to answer. It’s interesting hearing that even at the Toronto Symphony, you know, you do have— more-or-less—a white audience. In my experience of American orchestras: the symphonies are mainly white musicians playing the music of dead white men [laughs], playing mainly to white audiences of an orchestra that is mainly comprised of white, middle-aged to older, board members.