Listeners voted her Classical Woman of the Year
Daily Comfort ZoneDavid Krauss’s latest conversation partner on Speaking Soundly is the American pianist Lara Downes, who was voted favourite performer by listeners to NPR – in part, for her championship of music by women and minority composers.
‘There wasn’t much that reflected me – either as a girl or as a person of color,’ she reflects.
Listen here.
Woman??? Won’t they get in trouble with Labour for that?
And who was male favorite performer?
The key phrase here is “voted favorite performer by listeners to NPR.” In my experience you can listen to NPR for a long time before you hear a piece played in its entirety, and you can hear music described as classical which is more like “airport classical.”
I sampled her work on YouTube vids and she certainly has a certain fluency at the keyboard, in the works she has chosen to play. Talented. But it’s pretty clear why I never heard of her.
Is “hearing of somebody” an arbiter of quality, really?
No it is not and I did not say or imply that it was. But if I have not even heard of someone who is voted a favorite or “classical woman of the year” (that might be N.L.’s gloss on things; it is not clear that is what the NPR listeners declared her to be) then either I am slipping badly or there is something suspect in who did the voting or, as I strongly suspect, what the criteria were. My slipping badly does, alas, remain an available option as explanation, but I did get a decent sample of her abilities.
She’s decided she’s black now. Huh.
For the record, she’s the daughter of a Jamaican-American father and Jewish-American mother.
A great more bs DEI.
Great, more BS idiotic comments that have nothing to do with actual content
I wouldn’t put much credence in this assessment as a qualitative matter. It is NPR, after all.
Yeah what’s the deal? She kinda a crossover star? She does yet another “Rhapsody in Blue Reimagined” kind of thing. Who cares? And the above commenter is exactly right. NPR listeners obviously have no concept of who Yuja Wang or the likes are. Women who are running and gunning full steam ahead performing concerts around the world with the greatest orchestras and shining with incomprehensible talent AND attractiveness.
So what if this rando plays a lot of politically correct rep and ruins the Rhapsody like so many pianists who came before her?
Your grumbly biases are showing—just admit you weren’t going to listen outside your usual and would never give these performers a chance.
…”person of color..” what D.E.I. influences in action here. We all have a color. She needs a different tag.
You anonymous guys are a rough crowd.
Intolerant, bigoted and angry are other words I would use. Not exactly a reflection of classical music’s ability to elevate and speak to our better selves.
I miss Jim Svejda.
Lara Downes’ nomination as Classical Woman of the Year is remarkable, especially given her advocacy for women and minority composers. Her work promotes diversity in classical music and industry inclusion. As a child who didn’t perceive herself in classical music, Downes’ activism is inspiring and vital for a more equal and representative musical landscape.
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