The Insurmountable Wall

In July 2019, the Aspen Music Festival and School staged a concert production of Rodger and Hammerstein’s “South Pacific.” This was a performance of the show’s 2006 revised concert score, a score that had preserved Pacific Islander stereotypes and an anti-Japanese racial slur. It was so offensive to one student in the orchestra that he decided to approach festival administrators with his concerns. He alleges that they did not respond positively to this conversation. Shortly afterward, he received a message from his private teacher. “You need to apologize,” said the teacher, “for the sake of your career.”