Staff Diversity
In This SectionFollowing a decade of moderate growth overall and a strong increase in Black representation during the pandemic years, BIPOC representation reached 23.3% in 2024.
In common with other performing arts sectors, women’s representation was higher than men’s throughout the decade, while non-binary representation notably increased.
Further research is needed to better understand the relationship between race, gender and positional power within orchestras.
This data includes part-time and seasonal staff. It also includes top executives, but is heavily skewed towards other staff.
2024 Snapshot
Visit our Frequently Asked Questions page for more information about how this data is analyzed, the value of the metric we present in measuring change, and the work underway by orchestras to improve diversity of representation.
2014-2024 Trends
An acceleration in Black representation (from 5.4% in 2022 to 10% in 2024) drove a moderate overall increase in staff diversity: in 2024, 23.3% of orchestra staff members were identified as BIPOC.
Black people, women, and non-binary individuals were better represented on orchestra staff than in any other orchestra role, throughout the period 2014-2024. In contrast, Asian, American Indian and Native Hawaiian representation barely increased during the ten-year period.
Women’s representation held steady (and remained comparable with the opera sector) at around 60%.
Non-binary representation grew significantly from a low starting point, increasing from 0.1% in 2014 to 1.3% in 2024.
Visit our Frequently Asked Questions page for more information about how this data is analyzed, the value of the metric we present in measuring change, and the work underway by orchestras to improve diversity of representation.
More Resources
Across the U.S. workforce, systemic inequities have resulted in Black, women, and non-binary employees being concentrated in lower-paid, part-time and / or seasonal positions. Further research is needed to better understand the relationship between race, gender and positional power within orchestras. The League’s learning and leadership programs offer support in building the inclusive organizational cultures essential in building and retaining a diverse staff team.
In This Section
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