Abstract

This article attempts to bring awareness to the importance of working at the intersection of music and identity to create inclusive communities. Diversifying composer representation to include historically excluded individuals is vital for equal representation and an important diversity initiative, but this is topical and superficial at best. One must first understand identity to create sustainable and inclusive musical and artistic communities. A genuine commitment to inclusivity and diversity in the arts is achieved only with this. This article explains how identity expresses itself in every aspect of our musical output by dissecting the concepts of privilege, identity—its formation and continuous transformation—and intersectionality. For a practical explanation of the aforementioned ideas, the second part of this article applies those concepts to a piece from the classical saxophone repertoire entitled Pimpin’ by Jacob ter Veldhuis. This piece is used as an example to better understand how music and identity intersect within all facets of our music-making, namely in this case, our repertoire. While this article illuminates identity’s role in every facet of our musicking, the aim is to create an agency that will manifest itself in various ways, from political and social to aesthetic and artistic—an agency that allows all people to be affirmed, supported, and heard.