Inspiring Social Change through Music

Access to tech and creative industry employment

County of Los Angeles (select only if your project has a countywide benefit)

Expand existing project, program, or initiative (expanding and continuing ongoing, successful work)

Classical music has long excluded BIPOC and other marginalized voices, from the stage, the repertoire, and the audience. This lack of representation perpetuates a culture where certain stories are prioritized while others are overlooked or silenced. For BIPOC and LGBTQ+ communities, arts and culture can offer hope, healing, and visibility. Seeing themselves on stage and hearing voices from their own community is powerful and necessary.
As a Black classical musician, our Founder and Artistic Director Alexander Lloyd Blake created Tonality to offer a space where all voices are respected, and difference is embraced. We use choral music to create belonging, especially for those historically excluded. Our concerts highlight urgent social justice issues, including gun violence, trans rights, criminal justice, climate change, and pair music with personal stories and community voices. This approach fosters empathy; sparks dialogue; and inspires action.

The Tonality Scholars Program is a mentorship and access initiative designed to dismantle the systemic barriers that prevent BIPOC youth from entering and thriving in classical music. Through hands-on training, professional exposure, and direct mentorship from Tonality’s majority-BIPOC ensemble, the program supports emerging artists in developing their skills and sense of artistic identity.
This grant will support an expanded season of the Scholars Program, culminating in “Just Me,” a concert that highlights the challenges faced by our transgender and non-binary community members. Over five workshops, scholars will explore themes of identity, equity, and belonging through music and storytelling. Scholars will rehearse and perform with Tonality vocalists – sharing in the power only made possible when voices come together – to uplift and support the LGBTQ+ community.
Rooted in Tonality’s mission to center diverse voices, the Scholars Program offers all activities free of charge and creates space for youth to see themselves in classical music. By merging artistic excellence with social justice, the program redefines who belongs on stage and in the audience, building a more inclusive future for the arts.

If successful, our Scholars Program and the “Just Me” concert will demonstrate that classical music can be a space of inclusion, empowerment, and community-authored change. In the short term, it will elevate youth voices, increase representation on professional stages, and foster mentorship between students and diverse working artists. Long term, it will seed a new generation of socially conscious artists who reflect L.A.'s cultural diversity. We plan to scale this model to additional schools and communities across the county, building a replicable framework for arts-based civic engagement that dismantles barriers to participation in classical music. Through “Just Me,” we aim to transform not only who gets to perform, but whose stories get told, and how the arts can be a powerful force for equity and connection.