After besting over 130 applicants for the job as music director of the Carmel Symphony Orchestra (CSO), Maestra Janna Hymes has taken the helm as the CSO’s first female conductor. Her journey to the podium began as a teenager when a music teacher was t …

Anne Duthie McCafferty grew up in Indianapolis and has played with the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra for 45 seasons. She never thought she would have the chance to have a performance job, but when the opportunity arose she took it. Since then, McCafferty has performed for millions of people, performed numerous fantastic pieces, and coordinates the local chapter of Classical Revolution. Read below about her life, career, and impact on Indy.

For our first blog post during Black History Month, we wanted to take a look at a time in American history when the simple act of attending a classical music concert was prohibited for people of color. Renowned African-American opera baritone Robert Honeysucker, who unexpectedly died in 2017, was a student at Tougaloo College in 1963 when he decided to attend a whites-only concert in Jackson, Mississippi. His actions and the many other brave protests of the Civil Rights Movement helped to shed light on the issue of racial prejudice, but how far has classical music really come today?