A NEW POPS ORCHESTRA FOR NEW YORK CITY
01
ABOUT US
WHO WE ARE
Pops of Color is New York City’s premier Pops Orchestra exclusively comprised of musicians of color, jamming out to the soul-stirring music of our cultural icons.
WHAT WE DO
From education initiatives in the Boogie Down Bronx to the swankiest galas downtown, we are redefining what orchestras
look like, sound like, and feel like.
02
03
OUR AUDIENCE
First Dates. Music Aficionados. Aunties. If you run to the dance floor the second that Earth, Wind & Fire starts playing at a wedding, our concerts are for you. If you’re tapping your foot under the table avoiding the dance floor, our concerts are also for you.
OUR LINEUP
Our concerts feature the works of Quincy Jones, Tito Puente, Erykah Badu, Bruno Mars, Gloria Estefan - we’ve got a ton of ground to cover. We’re even getting down with a Lin-Manuel Miranda Disney sing-a-long for the next generation of music lovers. Celebrating our icons of today,
yesterday,
and tomorrow.
04
OUR INSPIRATIONS
QUINCY JONES
TITO PUENTE
BARRY WHITE
ISAAC HAYES
EARTH WIND & FIRE
GAMBLE & HUFF
TERENCE BLANCHARD
KATHRYN BOSTIC
KRIS BOWERS
ASHFORD & SIMPSON
RAMIN DJAWADI
TOSHIKO AKIYOSHI
MARY LOU WILLIAMS
MICHAEL ABELS
THOM BELL
PINAR TOPRAK
GLORIA ESTEFAN
DUKE ELLINGTON
JON BATISTE
A.R. RAHMAN
AND IF YOU DONT KNOW, NOW YOU'LL KNOW...
OUR WHY: THE STATS
-
Black or African American, Hispanic/Latinx, Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander, and American Indian and Alaska Native representation is significantly lower among orchestra musicians than in the U.S. population overall.
-
Continuing a longstanding trend, Black or African American musician representation improved at a slower rate than that of any other racial/ethnic group, increasing only very slightly during the ten-year period.
-
Growth was mainly driven by a strong increase in the representation of Asian or Asian American music directors within larger budget orchestras. In 2023, Asian or Asian American people are better represented in the music director population than in the U.S. population as a whole.
-
Black or African American and Multiracial representation among music directors decreased between 2013-14 and 2022-23
-
Orchestra boards remain significantly less racially/ethnically diverse than the boards of nonprofit organizations overall, themselves acknowledged as poorly representative of the U.S. population. Hispanic/Latinx representation remains especially low in comparison with the overall U.S. population.
**DATA RELEASED BY
THE LEAGUE OF AMERICAN ORCHESTRAS
ON JUNE 5, 2023.
FOUNDER AND ARTISTIC DIRECTOR
SEAN MAYES
When I first moved to New York almost a decade ago from teaching classroom music and arts in Canada, I dove head first into working in arts education with various arts organizations alongside my ongoing work as a musician, artist & conductor.
I quickly discovered that there was a huge gap in the exposure that young students of all walks - but particularly young students of color - had to music that represented them and their families.
Over these years, I’ve also been working within the Pops symphonic community as a conductor & orchestrator. And I’ve also discovered through this that orchestral music, its repertoire and its players are in desperate need of a revitalization when it comes to representation across the board.
To that point, I am so thrilled in sharing our new Pops orchestra, Pops of Color, that I’ve founded with a two tiered mission: to exclusively feature musicians of color in its makeup, and to exclusively highlight the work by musical performers and artists of color on stage and off.
Above all else, I’m most proud that Pops of Color will be an educational undertaking first and foremost: our concerts and programming will also run alongside a new educational initiative to provide NYC students with access to arts education content, taught to them by members of our ensemble. It is my hope that with this, students of all walks of life can see themselves represented in artists that reflect their diversity, and can learn about music in our programming created by artists that also mirror their diversity.
And on top of all of that, I’m even more thrilled that Pops of Color will be the new official resident orchestral ensemble of the historical Town Hall in New York City. The Town Hall is an remarkable, singular venue and organization that has been advancing the cause of the greater good on the correct side of history for the last 104 years, serving as a cultural landmark that has enabled the launch of countless artists - in space for political and artistic expression, in often times when they had other organizations and venues turn their backs on them. I can’t think of a more appropriate venue with which to celebrate our new artistic partnership.
I’m so excited to share this with the world, mostly as I truly believe we can truly change the face of arts and arts education, and most importantly, make a new generation young musicians and alike believe there is a space for them on the orchestral and musical stage.
The future is bright, unapologetic and filled with some kick ass music. There’s so much work to do and we’ve got some great concerts and ideas coming down the pipe to make up for so much time.
Come see “The City’s Orchestra” from February 2025 and beyond at Town Hall! See you there!
@MAESTROMAYES
