EOS

The Project

The Brattleboro Music Center’s EOS (Educate. Open. Strengthen.) Project is a direct response to questions about social justice as it pertains to the world of classical music and institutions such as the BMC.

Developed and led by BMC faculty member Heather Sommerlad, EOS is envisioned as a collaborative effort of BMC Music School faculty and other local musicians to actively seek out and intentionally study and perform music by composers who are Black, Indigenous, and People of Color, as well as composers who identify as anything other than cis male.

Miss the November 8 inaugural concert? You can view it via Livestream.

The EOS Project recognizes that as our country reckons with its history of oppression, we as individuals must work to understand our own implicit biases. In the music world, bias can be seen in concert halls, both on stage and in the music performed. Composers of color, as well as composers who are not cis male, have historically been excluded from the musical canon.

“We’ll still play Bach, Haydn, and Mozart, but we will also perform Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, Florence Price, George Walker and many others,” says BMC Executive Director Mary Greene. “EOS is not about inclusivity, since inclusivity shouldn’t be a project, and music isn’t a space we can claim. Rather, EOS is about education. By learning, performing, and listening to music from outside the parameters of systemic oppression, we are educating ourselves, opening ourselves to the reality of whose music exists and whose voices should be heard. By exploring beyond what we consider ‘familiar,’ we strengthen ourselves and our community.”

We welcome donations in support of this project!