Statement of solidarity and Action

Picture Credit: LA Johnson/NPR

We wholeheartedly condemn the murderers and systemic racism that led to deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery and of so many other black people in recent years and beyond.

We also acknowledge the role of institutions play in continuing to feed inequality and bias - it has led us to examine our own responsibility to uproot and eliminate systemic inequities and biases within our community.

We have carefully considered each of the following resolutions, which we are announcing today. 

Moving forward, Choral Chameleon is committed, thus far, to the following actions:

• Establishing a scholarship fund reserved exclusively for BIPOC and women, which may be used toward tuition for our education programs.
• Revising our audition and institute application process to a "blind" process in which adjudicators are not shown any racial, gender, or schooling information while considering and rating submissions. 
• Publishing our entire repertoire history on our website. It will be searchable by multiple parameters to continuously expose and account for the mindfulness and integrity of our programming practices.
• Donating a portion of the proceeds from this year's Virtual Institute to The Institute for Composer Diversity at SUNY Fredonia, a center dedicated to the celebration, education, and advocacy of music created by composers from historically underrepresented groups.

If you would like to support our efforts by donating to our scholarship fund or matching our gift to ICD, please contact us at info@choralchameleon.com.

We're grateful that we can make the space to meaningfully address this important matter as a whole organization with your support as our extended family.

Sincerely,
Vince Peterson, Founding Artistic Director
Nicole Belmont, Executive Director
and
The Board of Choral Chameleon