Since the violinist Aaron P. Dworkin founded the Sphinx Organization nearly two decades ago to encourage diversity in the stubbornly homogeneous field of classical music, he has held competitions and tours to showcase young black and Latino musicians, started educational programs and urged conservatories and orchestras to be more inclusive.
Now Mr. Dworkin — who along the way won a MacArthur fellowship and was appointed to the National Council on the Arts — is stepping down as president of the organization to assume a different kind of role: dean of the University of Michigan’s School of Music, Theater and Dance, which on Thursday announced that he would take up the position in July.
“Sphinx has, if you will, kind of been on the outside, almost by necessity, to be a catalyst — we are always the ones applying pressure and saying more needs to be done,” Mr. Dworkin, 44, said in a telephone interview. “But it’s easy for us to say to an orchestra that you need to have more diversity, you don’t have enough, and not necessarily be fully in the weeds of all of the facets they have to address. Now, of course, I’ll be in a role where I won’t have the luxury of speaking from the outside. I will have to really deliver, but in the totality of the role.”
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