Abstract
Many U.S. orchestras have outlined goals and objectives for improving the representation of Black and Indigenous People of Color (BIPOC) in personnel hiring. Blind auditions are used by U.S. orchestras as the standard for minimizing bias in hiring. While the implementation of blind auditions in the 1970s successfully improved the hiring of women in U.S. orchestras, it yielded no statistically significant improvement in the hiring of BIPOC musicians. The League of American Orchestras published a report in 2020 that addresses the insufficient BIPOC representation in spite of blind audition processes. The report identifies barriers to entry for BIPOC musicians in education. The literature that identifies the need for the promotion of diversity, equity, and inclusion in United States Orchestras fails to define the hiring problems at the intersection between race and gender. This paper aims to delineate some of the educational, social, cultural and economic barriers that are specific to Black women in orchestral performance.