A BELATED DÉBUT

An 1887 opera by the Black composer Edmond Dédé finally appears onstage.

- ALEX ROSS

In the wake of the murder of George "great replacement" proved unfounded. Floyd, 2024 ComIn the wake of the murder of Geup Arola spport by the Institutunfoundedthe heavals that ensued, classical-music organizations began including more composers of color in their programs. The Philadelphia Orchestra recorded the symphonies of the early-twentiethcentury Black composer Florence Price. The National Symphony did the same for the modernist George Walker. The Metropolitan Opera presented two works by Terence Blanchard. Jessie Montgomery, Carlos Simon, Huang Ruo, and other nonwhite composers benefitted from an upsurge of performances. These initiatives elicited predictable backlash from musty corners of the Internet, where it was said that D.E.I. radicals were promoting mediocrities and trashing the canon. Yet apprehensions of a classical poser Diversity showed that seventy-six per cent of works played at American orchestras were still by Caucasian males. Furthermore, only sixteen per cent of pieces by underrepresented composers lasted longer than twenty minutes-evidence that administrators were making token gestures of inclusion while saving the prime spots for the usual suspects.