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.
Side-stepping that memo, the SF Symphony — not an educational institution — is now the sole administrator of the project, with the SFCM in a supporting role.
Created in the wake of the George Floyd protests, the EBCP was established as a 10-year commissioning project meant to lower some of the barriers Black composers face in the field of classical music. The program awards $15,000 to early-career Black composers, gives them a premiere with the SF Symphony, and provides them with mentorship from music directors at local partner organizations.
“I am thrilled that the Emerging Black Composers Project will continue finding and funding some of the best musical talent in the country,” Daniel Bartholomew-Poyser, chair of the EBCP said in a statement released by the SF Symphony on Friday. “It’s been very gratifying to see our past laureates continue to create and enjoy success, which speaks to the importance of not only our program, but all that celebrate and support early-stage artists.”
