{"id":45416,"date":"2025-10-16T13:20:34","date_gmt":"2025-10-16T13:20:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/americanorchestras.org\/?p=45416"},"modified":"2026-01-15T19:17:35","modified_gmt":"2026-01-15T19:17:35","slug":"power-of-inclusion-capital-city-symphony-a-community-of-choice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/americanorchestras.org\/power-of-inclusion-capital-city-symphony-a-community-of-choice\/","title":{"rendered":"Power of Inclusion &#8211; Capital City Symphony: A Community of Choice"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>In 2005, the Georgetown Symphony Orchestra\u2019s Music Director Victoria Gau powerfully demonstrated her community orchestra\u2019s devotion to creating inclusive space both onstage and in the community. The orchestra became a founding partner of the Atlas Performing Arts Center, in northeast Washington, D.C. At the same time, the orchestra was renamed Capital City Symphony to reflect its citywide mission to serve neighborhoods with less access to the performing arts. Atlas is located along the H Street corridor that was a center of Black commerce until its devastation in the riots that followed Martin Luther King\u2019s assassination in 1968. Atlas (named for an iconic movie theatre at its core) has been key to the revitalization of the neighborhood.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Gau enthuses about buy-in to the values of the organization among musicians (volunteers who pay dues on a sliding scale). Musicians can see the organization\u2019s values in its programming\u2014in diverse repertoire, in free tickets for youth, in family shows. Gau describes it as \u201ca community of choice, not of income. Many people who audition for us are idealistic young people.\u201d These idealists are invited to help shape the orchestra\u2019s strategic plan in orchestra-wide town halls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A telling sign of musicians\u2019 devotion to the orchestra is that it provides social bonds in the transience of Washington; musicians may leave for four years, but when they return to D.C., they return to the orchestra. Contributing to that is an understanding of their needs. \u201cOur artistic goal is a performance beyond what the musicians expect, and we don\u2019t get there by badgering people who have already worked 50 hours this week.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In building a culture of discussion, freedom, and teamwork, Gau credits her longtime board chair Alex Swartsel, herself a consultant on employment matters. \u201cShe is an absolute dream for setting up an organizational culture where people want to be heard.\u201d Two elected orchestra representatives serve on the board to keep lines of communication open. And Gau has a strong leadership partner in Executive Director Genevieve McGahey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When interpersonal issues arise, Gau and McGahey stress dealing with it directly, and with empathy. \u201cPeople are human,\u201d McGahey reminds us, \u201cand we believe in giving each other the benefit of the doubt.\u201d Issues like workplace safety can be hard for a small nonprofit to deal with, she says, \u201cbut having inclusive principles at the core makes it so much easier to work and have a thriving arts organization.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-buttons is-layout-flex wp-block-buttons-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-button has-custom-width wp-block-button__width-50\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link has-coral-background-color has-background wp-element-button\" href=\"https:\/\/americanorchestras.org\/power-of-inclusion-summermusik-motivating-musicians\/\">Previous: Summermusik: Motivating Musicians<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-button has-custom-width wp-block-button__width-50\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link has-coral-background-color has-background wp-element-button\" href=\"https:\/\/americanorchestras.org\/power-of-inclusion-omaha-symphony-musicians-as-family\/\">Next: Omaha Symphony: Musicians as Family<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-buttons is-content-justification-center is-layout-flex wp-container-core-buttons-is-layout-16018d1d wp-block-buttons-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-button\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link has-coral-background-color has-background has-text-align-left wp-element-button\" href=\"https:\/\/americanorchestras.org\/catalyst-guide-the-power-of-inclusion\/\">Return to the full guide<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:100px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p id=\"1\"><em>Photo: A culture of discussion, freedom, and teamwork, led by Music Director Victoria Gau in collaboration with board and executive leadership. Photo courtesy of Capital City Symphony.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In 2005, the Georgetown Symphony Orchestra\u2019s Music Director Victoria Gau powerfully demonstrated her community orchestra\u2019s devotion to creating inclusive space both onstage and in the community. At the same time, the orchestra was renamed Capital City Symphony to reflect its citywide mission to serve neighborhoods with less access to the performing arts.<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":45482,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[133],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-45416","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-learn","format-guide","topic-equity-diversity-inclusion"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Power of Inclusion - Capital City Symphony: A Community of Choice - americanorchestras.org<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/americanorchestras.org\/power-of-inclusion-capital-city-symphony-a-community-of-choice\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Power of Inclusion - Capital City Symphony: A Community of Choice - americanorchestras.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In 2005, the Georgetown Symphony Orchestra\u2019s Music Director Victoria Gau powerfully demonstrated her community orchestra\u2019s devotion to creating inclusive space both onstage and in the community. At the same time, the orchestra was renamed Capital City Symphony to reflect its citywide mission to serve neighborhoods with less access to the performing arts.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/americanorchestras.org\/power-of-inclusion-capital-city-symphony-a-community-of-choice\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"americanorchestras.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/orchleague\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-10-16T13:20:34+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-01-15T19:17:35+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/americanorchestras.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/1025_LEAGUE_CAT_GUIDE_2025_1800x675_12_CAPITALCITY.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1800\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"675\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Joanna Bettelheim\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@orchleague\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@orchleague\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Joanna Bettelheim\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/americanorchestras.org\/power-of-inclusion-capital-city-symphony-a-community-of-choice\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/americanorchestras.org\/power-of-inclusion-capital-city-symphony-a-community-of-choice\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Joanna Bettelheim\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/americanorchestras.org\/#\/schema\/person\/141366fc8ad5dbeeddd66de957dbcd87\"},\"headline\":\"Power of Inclusion &#8211; 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