Lift Every Voice

Fischoff commits to welcoming every person into the chamber music community. While the chamber music canon has been rooted in the Western European tradition, Fischoff acknowledges that many voices of the past and present have been underrepresented. We embrace our leadership role in increasing diversity among our ensemble competitors, jurors, audiences, board, and staff. Through our unique platform, Fischoff aspires to expand the canon through education and the encouragement of musical performances by composers of diverse cultural heritages and traditions.  By celebrating women composers and composers of color, Fischoff provides richer musical experiences for musicians and audiences alike.

With its annual Competition and year-round chamber music performances, Fischoff is uniquely situated to help expand and transform the canon of traditional chamber music repertoire by encouraging ensembles to perform works by historically under-represented composers. In 2023, Fischoff instituted a mandatory component for Senior Division competitors to include works by diverse composers in their competition repertoire. In addition, Fischoff created the Lift Every Voice Prize, which is awarded to one Senior String Division ensemble and one Senior Wind Division ensemble for best performance of a work by a historically underrepresented composer within the chamber music world.

All senior division ensembles must include at least one complete work, or multiple complete works, of a minimum of 8 minutes in length, by one of the following historically underrepresented communities: Asian, Women, Black, Latino/a (heritage originates from Latin America) composers. Future years may highlight additional underrepresented groups.

Thank you to Fischoff’s EDI Committee: Alfred Guillaume – Chair, Lisa Casey, Marvin Curtis, John De Souza, Harriet Hamer, Nels Leininger, Michael Pippenger, Teresa Roberts, and Scott Campbell.