In classical music, racism toward musicians of Asian heritage is as casual as it is pervasive. When I was in my first year of conservatory, at the Royal Academy of Music in London, a Korean composition student was late to a single lesson; the professor proceeded to do a disgustingly caricatured impression of his accent. This racism—like much racism—seems to result from a mishmash of vague ignorance and keen yet unacknowledged anxieties about the future. From world-famous musicians to anonymous internet commentators, discrimination toward Asian musicians contains an ugly, common tenor: In this music, they will not replace us.
For this story, I spoke with seven musicians from Europe, the U.S., and Asia, including instrumentalists, singers, and composers. They discussed their experiences of being written off as automatons, underestimated, mixed up for one another, and denied their rightful places in this art. But they also discussed their optimism, and how they go about building their own musical utopias.
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