Equity Arc Partners with Nashville Symphony to Present the 2024 National Pathways Festival and Summit
Equity Arc and the Nashville Symphony announce details for the 2024 National Pathways Festival & Summit. This multi-day event will be held on April 6–8, 2024 at Schermerhorn Symphony Center.
Equity Arc’s National Collective for Musical Pathways, an alliance of rigorous pre-college equitable music training programs, presents the 2024 National Pathways Festival in partnership with the Nashville Symphony. Selected through a competitive audition process, 58 Pathways musicians of color will travel to Nashville for a multi-day intensive musical experience. Participating fellows will learn and perform side-by-side with the Nashville Symphony led by Music Director Giancarlo Guerrero, connect with collegiate representatives, and serve as ambassadors for Pathways programs across the country. The National Pathways Festival Orchestra roster is available at equityarc.org/festivalorchestra.
The Equity Arc Summit, hosted concurrently, invites pre-college and collegiate representatives and supporters to explore the impact of Pathways programs, participate in strategic discussions on admissions, and strengthen inter-organizational partnerships. The summit will also highlight the necessary learning experiences that will equip pre-college musicians to find success in their next steps. The summit schedule, hotel, and registration details are available at equityarc.org/nashville24.
“We’re excited to bring 58 young musicians to a new city and orchestra this year. Those who have participated in these festivals since 2022 can say they’ve played with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Cincinnati Symphony, and now the Nashville Symphony—all before graduating high school! As the National Pathways Festival Orchestra (NPFO) continues to expand, we look forward to strengthening collegiate partnerships to ensure that these talented musicians’ trajectories continue to flourish.”
The National Pathways Festival and Summit culminates in a free side-by-side performance with the National Pathways Festival Orchestra (NPFO) and the Nashville Symphony led by Giancarlo Guererro on April 8 at 7:30pm. The program includes Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 5, Adolphus Hailstork’s An American Port of Call, and Harry T. Burleigh’s The Young Warrior. Complimentary tickets for this concert can be reserved at nashvillesymphony.org.
“The Nashville Symphony is proud to play its part in nurturing these young musicians and providing Equity Arc a platform for its important ongoing work. At this summit, we will keep chipping away at the very real—and often unseen—barriers that too often have kept musicians of color from advancing in the orchestra field.”
What to Expect in Nashville:
- Focus on pre-college Pathways and collegiate partnerships, and emphasis on musical development experiences
- Keynote address from Monica Ellis, bassoonist at Imani Winds
- National Pathways Festival Internship for select fellows to curate festival experience
- All festival music activities led by Maestro Giancarlo Guerrero and Nashville Symphony musicians
- College fair with over 15 participating music schools from across the United States
- Fellow tour of Vanderbilt University’s Blair School of Music
About Equity Arc
Equity Arc is a national coalition of musical organizations and advocates whose mission and programming address the structural inequities in classical music that result in the field’s systemic lack of racial and ethnic diversity. Equity Arc creates and works with a robust network of passionate, experienced members from across the country and across the arc of musical development along two paths: Building a comprehensive arc of support and mentorship for instrumentalists to navigate the journey from student to professional and assisting in breaking down barriers to achieving success in the field. Equity Arc also provides forums, resources, and training for member organizations to dismantle the structural inequities, biases, and systemic racism ingrained in their policies and practices that inhibit the creation of equitable opportunities and environments for classical musicians of color.
In 2023, Equity Arc developed the National Pathways Collective, an initiative that provides a nucleus for Pathways Programs across the United States. Pathways Programs offer free, intensive musical training and mentorship that prepares pre-college musicians of color to enter prestigious collegiate music institutions. The National Pathways Festival is an annual opportunity for select fellows in the National Pathways Collective to convene in a central location for a multi-day musical intensive, working alongside professional orchestral musicians and forming the National Pathways Festival Orchestra.
About Nashville Symphony
The GRAMMY® Award-winning Nashville Symphony has earned an international reputation for its innovative programming and its commitment to performing, recording, and commissioning works by America’s leading composers. With more than 140 performances annually, the orchestra offers a broad range of classical, pops, movies, jazz, and children’s concerts, along with extensive education and community engagement programs that serve people throughout Middle Tennessee. The Nashville Symphony has released 40 internationally distributed recordings on Naxos, which have received 27 GRAMMY® nominations and 14 GRAMMY® Awards, making it one of the most active recording orchestras in the country. The orchestra has also released recordings on Decca, Deutsche Grammophon and New West Records.
The Nashville Symphony’s Accelerando initiative is an intensive music education program designed to prepare gifted young students of diverse ethnic backgrounds for pursuing music at the collegiate level and beyond. Accelerando seeks to create professional opportunities for musicians from ethnic communities underrepresented in today’s orchestras by providing them with instruction, mentorship, performance experiences and assistance with applying to music schools. With access to the resources of a major American orchestra, these students will be able to realize their full potential and will form the next generation of orchestra musicians.
Contact media@equityarc.org for more information and media inquiries.
