Our Momentum: Progress to Date

Students:

• ​Realigned recruitment, admissions, and financial aid awarding strategies to better support enrollment of ALANA, Black, and international students.
  • Between 2018 and 2020, the Conservatory increased the number of Black students admitted by 62 percent.
  • The fall 2020 entering musical theater class was the most diverse in the Conservatory's history, with 26 percent BIPOC.
  • The fall 2020 entering dance class was 50 percent BIPOC.
  • In the 2020–2021 academic year, 26 percent of the Conservatory's current domestic undergraduate student population is ALANA.
     
• Admissions team members undergo regular diversity and inclusion training to improve recruitment practices for underrepresented students.
   
• Established a partnership with Berklee City Music, which provides Boston-area youth with tools and support needed to reach their fullest potential through creative youth education in performing arts. As part of this partnership, Boston Conservatory is piloting new curriculum for Berklee City Music in theater, dance, and classical music, to build access and create new pathways for students into the Conservatory. Learn more.

Staffing:

• Created a new assistant dean of multicultural recruitment role focused exclusively on recruitment of domestic and international BIPOC students. 

• ​Introduced new-hire search committee diversity and inclusion training run by the vice president of Human Resources and associate director of Diversity and Inclusion.

• Created an assistant director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion position to support the Conservatory’s diversity and inclusion work.

Faculty:

Hiring of BIPOC faculty members has accelerated; most notably, we have increased our faculty BIPOC population in the Theater Division by 21 percentage points between spring 2020 and fall 2020.

• For spring 2021:
  • 30 percent of the Conservatory’s dance faculty is ALANA
  • 13 percent of the Conservatory’s music faculty is ALANA
  • 29 percent of the Conservatory’s theater faculty is ALANA 

Workshops and Trainings:

• The Berklee Black Lives Matter Capsule launched in June 2020 with 10 learning modules and guided discussions for community anti-racism training. All staff members are required to undergo formal inclusivity training with these materials. The training is led by department leaders and, as of spring 2021, most have completed the training modules with their teams. 

• Boston Conservatory faculty, staff, and executive leaders regularly attend diversity and inclusion-focused professional development workshops and training offered by the Berklee Center for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion and Human Resources. Topics range from reducing implicit bias in the hiring process to navigating challenging moments across differences. 

• All Boston Conservatory students undergo mandatory diversity and inclusion training and dialogue at orientation and beyond.

• The Dance Division prioritized division-wide training on diversity, equity, and inclusion:

  • Chair of Dance Mila Thigpen led a cultural humility faculty training, which discussed white privilege, unconscious bias, and microaggressions as contributors to inequitable education in dance. 

  • Urban Bush Women Dance Company presented a workshop to Boston Conservatory dance faculty members titled EBX: Entering, Building and Exiting Community. The workshop focused on embodying effective leadership practices that strengthen and develop participant understanding of community engagement.

• The Music Division focused efforts on diversity training and hiring:

  • Partnered with the Berklee Center for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion to facilitate Music Division staff and faculty training.

  • Required all music faculty hiring search committees to undergo diversity training in collaboration with the Berklee Center for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion and Human Resources. This work has led to the successful hiring of esteemed artists Vimbayi Kaziboni (conducting), Patrice Jackson-Tilghman (cello), Charles Overton (harp), Saul Bitran (violin), and more.

• The Theater Division prioritized division-wide training on diversity, equity, and inclusion:

  • Partnered with the Berklee Center for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion to facilitate Theater Division staff and faculty training.

  • All Theater Division faculty participated in a mandatory Conscientious Theater/Anti-Racist Theater training with Nicole Brewer, whose work exposes the shape-shifting quality of racism in theater, and provides a framework for creating a fully inclusive and anti-racist theater organizational culture through the use of conscientious theater training.

  • Introduced formal diversity and inclusion training for all first-year musical theater students.

  • Introduced Changing the Script, a community dialogue series on topics such as race, representation and casting, fighting racism onstage and off, intimacy onstage and in the classroom, and LGBTQ+ lives on stage

  • Amplified community resources for diversity, equity, and inclusion through biweekly divisional newsletter promoting links to helpful articles and information on diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Educational Resources:

• The Berklee Center for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion established 12 regularly available professional training opportunities to promote diversity and inclusion education across the community, with opportunities to request tailored workshops and resources for individuals and departments.

• Boston Conservatory’s Alphin Alphin Library created a Diversity and Inclusion Book Corner, which is accessible to all faculty, staff, and students.

Community Events:

• The Berklee Center for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, alongside the Black History Celebration Committee and many partners across the Berklee community, organized the 2021 Black History Celebrations, titled Black Legacy and Resilience: Education, Empowerment, and Healing Signature Series, featuring Black artists, storytellers, activists, speakers, and thinkers in a variety of formats and forums to engage members of our community in learning, reflection, celebration, and renewal. 

• Junetheenth was established as a Berklee-wide day of reflection, education, discussion, and personal goal-setting. 

Dialogues and Advisory Groups:

• In 2019, established the Executive Director’s Student Advisory Council (EDSAC), a student advisory group that collaborates with the Conservatory’s executive director on diversity initiatives. 

• In 2020, established the Executive Director’s Faculty Advisory Council (EDFAC), a faculty advisory group that collaborates with the Conservatory’s executive director on diversity initiatives.

Initiated a Conservatory-wide curriculum review and reinvention, and continued consultation with diversity professionals to identify ways to enhance art-based diversity and inclusion teachings.

Dance Division Curricular Innovation:

• Retitled courses, such as those in ballet technique, to remove gendered language and convey course availability to all students, regardless of gender identity; and implemented new pedagogical approaches to support these changes.

• Revision of the Conservatory’s Dance Core Movement curriculum, which previously centered on ballet and modern dance, to include movement forms with origins in the traditions of the African Diaspora. These newly required courses include African Dance, Hip Hop, Jazzdance, and Salsa (previously offered as electives).

• Added new dance academic courses that decenter Western classicism and offer students an expanded understanding of dance as an expression of culture, of global aesthetic frameworks, and of dance as a vehicle for social change. These include:

  • The Black Aesthetic in American Modern Dance
  • Dance and Socio-Political Activism
  • Decolonizing Ballet
  • History of Hip-Hop 
  • Introduction to Iconic Dance: An Analysis of Urban Movement and Culture 

Music Division Curricular Innovation:

• Launched a Core Studies Focus Group tasked with diversifying the Music Division’s foundational curriculum. This group’s work has led to important curricular updates, such as revamping the Conservatory’s Music History 1 course to both contextualize and challenge the notion of the “canon,” and to incorporate a topical approach to teaching the material as a way to  diversify course content. Their ongoing work is improving the Music Division’s curricular structure by enabling a more broad exploration of content, such as:

  • Black composers and performers
  • Non-Western forms
  • Non-traditional musical language
  • Methods of analysis
  • Expanded music history and theory course offerings:
  • Uncultured Opera: Realism/Cultural ‘Other’
  • The Refugee Voice in the 19th and 20th Centuries
  • Free Jazz and Avant-Garde Improvisation
  • Foundations for instrumental studies students, which prepares first-year students for the rigorous work at the conservatory, ensuring equity within the ensembles experiences

Theater Division Curricular Innovation:

• Formally refocused divisional mission on inclusive teaching practices and celebrating diverse voices, creating a new divisional guiding statement and manifesto.

• Implemented division-wide community work agreement and standards and practices.

• Paired faculty with Center of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion representatives to observe classes and assist with meaningful revision of theater curriculum.

• Mandated that at least 50 percent of material used in academic classes be written by underrepresented voices.

• To help diversify classroom materials, theater faculty members have created a shared database of multicultural plays and musicals.

• Updated syllabus template to include standards and practices for engaging with materials outside of one’s own identity and background.

• Added new theater courses to generate cultural awareness and enrich artistic dialogues:
  • Actor’s Toolkit, providing diversity, equity, and inclusion training to first-year students
  • Contemporary Black Playwrights
  • African Dance
  • Contemporary Asian American Plays
  • Hip-Hop Dance
  • Latinx Theater 
  • Race, Identity, and Performance

Performances: 

• In 2018, Boston Conservatory mandated that all performance programming include contemporary works and works by underrepresented artists to ensure more diverse programming that pushes the boundaries of typical conservatory repertoire. Examples include:

  • contraBAND: African Voices in Contemporary Music: Featuring contemporary works by African composers, this concert marked the Western debut of some works on the program. Directed by Zimbabwean conductor Vimbayi Kaziboni.

  • Boston Conservatory Orchestra with Silkroad: Beginning in 2018, Boston Conservatory began a tradition of presenting an annual orchestra concert with artists from Silkroad, the Grammy Award–winning, global organization founded by Yo-Yo Ma.

  • Latin American Song Project: An annual concert tradition celebrating students’ Latin ancestry and heritage, created in 2018 by students Laura Virginia Pernas Rodriguez (B.M. ’20, voice) and Felix Aguilar Tomlinson (B.M. ’20, voice).

  • Spirituals: A Tribute to Robert Honeysucker: An annual concert of spirituals to commemorate the late voice faculty member Robert Honeysucker during Black History Month, presented by the Black Student Alliance.

  • Dance Division mainstage concerts: The Conservatory's annual fall (From the Ground Up) and spring (Limitless) dance concerts feature new works as well as iconic repertory created by world-renowned choreographers reflecting a diversity of experience and aesthetics.

  • Can't Keep Quiet: A Concert Celebrating Womxn Composers and Lyricists: This original theater revue celebrated women’s often unsung contributions to Broadway and the American musical, showing pioneering songwriters of the last 50 years.

• Center Stage: Launched Boston Conservatory at Berklee Center Stage, an annual collection of eight curated performances, selected from the school’s 700-plus performance season. Center Stage highlights works that are innovative, elevate underrepresented voices, or celebrate diverse performers or artistic teams. Read about the most recent Center Stage collection (2019–2020).

• Casting Policies: The Theater Division implemented a new inclusive casting policy for all division-related productions, developed in partnership with the Center for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. 

Guest Artists:

• Prioritized engagement of diverse guest artist lineups across all three divisions. These guest artists hold either short- or long-term residencies at Boston Conservatory, teaching, creating, or performing with students. Recent guest artist include:

  • Dance: Otis Sallid, Jennifer Archibald, Korhan Basaran, Roderick George, Joseph Toonga, Dam Van Huynh, Maleek Washington, Key'aira Lockett, Juel D. Lane, Bradley Shelver, Babatunji Johnson, Camille A. Brown, Victor Quijada, Gustavo Sansano, William Isaac, Martha Nichols, Jarek Cemerek, Chung-Fu Chang

  • Music: Julia Bullock, Awadagin Pratt, Seth Parker Woods, Ashleigh Gordon, Haruka Fujii, James Lee, III, Osvaldo Golijov, Marcus Thompson, Richard Kelley, Thomas Mesa, Stewart Goodyear, Julius Williams, Thomas Wilkins, Chelsey Green, Jonathan Heyward

  • Theater: Pascale Florestal, Lisa Yuen, Michael J. Bobbitt, Dawn Simmons, De’Lon Grant, Aaron Michael Ray

• Silkroad: In 2018, Boston Conservatory at Berklee established a partnership with Silkroad, a global organization of diverse artists who seek and practice radical cultural collaboration in many forms, creating and presenting new music, teacher and musician training workshops, and residency programs in schools, museums, and communities. A key component of this partnership is The Silkroad Creativity Lab, a Boston Conservatory course dedicated to artistic exploration and creation. Designed by Conservatory faculty and Silkroad artists, this course is taught by Silkroad artists and is open to all students across Berklee. Learn more about Silkroad.

• Berklee Abu Dhabi: As part of this partnership with Abu Dhabi’s Department of Culture and Tourism, located in one of the most culturally diverse and historically rich regions of the world, Boston Conservatory at Berklee faculty teach and perform, giving students from the Middle East/North Africa (MENA) region an opportunity to experience the Conservatory’s innovative performing arts curriculum. Learn more.

• Berklee Valencia: Boston Conservatory at Berklee students may complete a semester abroad at Berklee’s campus in Valencia, Spain. This incredible opportunity is just one of the many ways that the Conservatory offers students a culturally immersive educational experience. Learn more about Berklee Valencia.

• Royal Academy of Dance (RAD): This exclusive U.S. training program offers RAD teaching certification to Conservatory dance students. Learn more.

• Thrive Scholarship: Introduced Thrive, a student scholarship designed to support retention, reduce student loan debt, and improve success outcomes. Learn more.

  • In fall 2019, Thrive scholarships were awarded to 14 Conservatory students. One hundred percent of these students were able to continue their studies through the spring 2020 semester.

  • 50 percent of the Conservatory's 2019 Thrive scholarships were awarded to students of color.

• Rowland Foundation Grant: Obtained a grant from the Rowland Foundation to support scholarships for Boston Public School students to attend Boston Conservatory at Berklee Summer Programs.

• Christos and Eva E. Pappas Foundation: Secured a grant in support of Boston Conservatory’s diversity initiatives.

• Boston Conservatory at Berklee Endowment: Established an endowed fund that fiscally supports historically underserved students of color throughout their studies.

• Executive Director Momentum Fund (EDMF): Established a dedicated fund to support the institutional goals outlined in the Boston Conservatory Strategic Direction for 2020–2025. While the EDMF has historically been reserved for major gifts, it will accept gifts of any amount during the 2020–2021 fiscal year, and dedicate all dollars received during this period to the Conservatory’s immediate diversity initiatives. Support this work by making a gift of any amount today. 

• Berklee Summer Initiative: In 2017, Boston Conservatory became a key partner to the Berklee Summer Initiative (BSI), a program designed to celebrate African traditions and foster a strong sense of African American community, support, belonging, and cultural understanding at Berklee. Boston Conservatory student participation in the BSI increased 89% from summer 2019 to summer 2020. Learn more about BSI.

• Lavender Ceremony: Established in 2019 to honor the achievements and contributions of graduates of the LGBTQ+ community.

• Jabulani Celebration: Established in 2019 to honor the achievements and contributions of graduating students of African descent.

• Black Student Alliance: Boston Conservatory students play active roles in the Black Student Alliance (BSA), a student group that endeavors to address the unique challenges Black students at the Conservatory. Learm more about BSA.

• SphinxConnect: 

  • In 2020, Mariesther and Marielisa Alvarez, who are Boston Conservatory at Berklee alumnae and founders of the Boston String Academy, participated in the SphinxTank, a social justice organization dedicated to transforming lives through the power of diversity in the arts.

  • In 2019, Boston Conservatory at Berklee Dean of Music Michael Shinn moderated a panel discussion at the conference entitled Nurturing the Seed. Topics included attracting and retaining diverse talent and the pathways and early foundation that can be developed in young musicians. Panelists were Teddy Abrams, Maria Romero Ramos, and Boston Conservatory faculty member Patrice Jackson Tilghman (cello).

• Duke University Collegium for African Diaspora Dance Conference: In 2020, dance Chair Mila Thigpen and dance faculty members Marianne Harkless Diabate, Kurt Douglas, Ruka Hatua-Saar White, and Jazelynn Goudy presented at the Ebonies in the Ivory Tower panel for the Duke University Collegium for African Diaspora Dance Conference, which was themed Fluid Black: Dance Back.

• American Musicology Society: In 2019, music faculty member Joel Schwindt delivered a paper at the 2019 American Musicological Society conference entitled "'Me at last! Me at last!': Black Artists Freeing Themselves from Country Music's White Avatar."

• Faculty Discussions:
  • Boston Conservatory theater faculty members Summer Williams and Michael J. Bobbitt shared their thoughts on creating anti-racist theater and discussed theater’s role in racial justice with Boston Globe Theater Critic Don Aucoin. Watch the Facebook Live discussion.
     
• Faculty-Penned Research and Articles: 
  • Theater faculty member David Valdes wrote Beyond “Decolonizing” the Syllabus: Finding a Path to Anti-Racist, Actively Inclusive Theater Education and Conscious Casting and Letting Playwrights Lead, a thoughtful and reflective essay grappling with color- and gender-consciousness in theater as a playwright.