Some five years ago now, social media feeds went dark. In the bewildering first summer of the COVID-19 pandemic, timelines filled with black squares to show solidarity with the global protests against racist police brutality. Such square-posters included the expected activists and signal boosters, but they also included major institutions of classical music like the San Francisco Symphony, Glimmerglass Opera and the Metropolitan Opera. This wasn’t the first time anyone had ever called to address classical music’s racism, but it felt like an inflection point: a moment when those calls might gain traction and lead to real change.
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