The Emerging Black Composers Project Returns | KQED

"After months of uncertainty, the Emerging Black Composers Project (EBCP), launched in 2020 by the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and the San Francisco Symphony, is back on track. In early March 2025, SFCM and the SF Symphony announced the program was paused, citing a memo from the Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights that instructed schools to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion efforts or face the possibility of losing their federal funding."

"The winner of the fifth annual EBCP Michael Morgan Prize will be announced in the fall, and a call for the 2026 award will go out in November. (The prize was renamed in 2023 to honor the late Oakland Symphony conductor and co-founder of the EBCP, who died in 2021.) So far, the program has commissioned 11 pieces. Past prize winners include Jens Ibsen, Xavier Muzik, Tyler Taylor and Trevor Weston, with additional monetary awards going to composers Jonathan Bingham, Shawn Okpebholo and Sumi Tonooka."

The Emerging Black Composers Project began in 2020 to lower barriers for early-career Black composers by awarding $15,000 commissions, symphony premieres, and mentorship. The program paused in March 2025 after a Department of Education Office for Civil Rights memo pressured educational institutions to cut DEI efforts to avoid jeopardizing federal funding. The SF Symphony, not an educational institution, assumed sole administration while the San Francisco Conservatory of Music moved to a supporting role, allowing the project to continue. The Michael Morgan Prize winner will be announced in the fall, a 2026 call will go out in November, and premieres and commissions remain scheduled.

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