BPO Diversity Council IDEA Award

BPO Opening Doors
Friday, June 20, 2025
5:30-7:30pm
Kleinhans Music Hall

Honoring the recipients of the BPO Diversity Council IDEA Award

Come to the BPO Diversity Council’s annual Opening Doors event, taking place at Kleinhans Music Hall. Awardees of the BPO Diversity Council IDEA Award will be honored in an event raising funds to promote inclusion, diversity, equity, and access in classical music. We hope to see you there!

BPO Diversity Council IDEA Award

Honoring those in our community who create an inclusive, diverse, equitable and accessible environment in which music flourishes

The orchestral music world should reflect, and be accessible to our whole community. We seek to break down barriers for participation, especially for those who are underrepresented in the artform.

We recognize that we must all work together as a community to create an inclusive, diverse, equitable, and accessible environment in which music flourishes.

To these ends, this award aims to recognize and lift up individuals and organizations in our local community who love any and all genres of orchestral music and embody the principles of inclusion, diversity, equity and access (IDEA) while promoting, supporting, and/or practicing this artform.

2025 Recipients

The Historic Colored Musicians Club of Buffalo, New York Inc.

In 2025, the Historic Colored Musicians Club is celebrating the 90th anniversary of its chartering by New York State. In actual terms, it was informally created in 1918, one year after Local 533 was certified by the AFM. In 1917, rather than constituting itself as a “subsidiary union,” governed by the local White union, Local 533 opted to be a “standalone,” and thus fully independent union. Immediately after its informal creation in 1918, the HCMC became a community center for music and networking among Buffalo’s newly unionized African American musicians. Through its multiple weekly jam sessions, it also became the best place in the region for music fans to hear (and meet) their idols perform in a small venue with local musicians. Because of the extremely high musical standards found in all Local 533 and HCMC musicians, visiting bands could easily fill empty spots in their touring bands by a simple visit to the Local 533 office. In addition, both organizations routinely placed musicians in famous African American bands, sometimes permanently as a result of the informal shows at the jam sessions.

Over the last 100 years, its mission statement has stated that they are dedicated to promoting research and preserving the history of African American music in Buffalo, New York and globally and that they aspire to enlighten, encourage, and educate our youth on their musical heritage. At the Sunday night jam sessions, they provide an opportunity for mentees to observe and perform with professional African American musicians. Over many decades, many musicians have credited the HCMC with helping them improve their jazz improvisational skills and starting their careers. With the recent acquisition of a large building next to the HCMC, they are planning to create a formal music school with practice rooms and performance spaces in collaboration with local schools and music education programs

This year, they are concluding a multi-year major modernization program that entails the construction of a building addition, a total renovation of its historic performance space, and a complete refreshing of the exhibit and storylines of the Jazz Museum. The Jazz Museum is one of 14 standalone public jazz museums in the United States. When HCMC reopens, through the Museum, music school, and concert series, they plan to expand the focus on diversity programming by engaging more communities interested in the intersection of music and history throughout Western New York. They will utilize the renovated historic space and the space in the new building to create a campus offering performance and practice space for all types of music, with a particular focus on the art forms for youth.

Carol McLaughlin

Born in Kingston, Jamaica, Carol McLaughlin has been a fixture on the City of Buffalo’s music scene for over five decades! He is a classically trained saxophone and flutist and found his calling in the jazz world. As a point of interest, Carol was friends with the inimitable Bob Marley, whose son spent some of his childhood with Carol’s own son. Carol has broken down barriers to the access of playing and learning music by inviting and including people from all backgrounds to join him in lessons and on stage. He’s intentionally engaged young kids, older folks, people from all genders and financial backgrounds and people of different faiths and cultures. He’s proud of the fact that he’s taken numerous individuals under his wing while they discovered their own musical voices. Carol cultivates musical programming through public rehearsals in the Buffalo Community, and is known to change repertoire live, after reading the room and feeling the audience response. Carol experienced blatant racism in his life – including being asked to leave clubs where he was supposed to be playing music – simply because of the color of his skin. Carol never wants to see anyone from any group discriminated against. He strives to build bridges wherever he can.

Carol has played with the Johnny Mathis, Brook Benton, Ruth Brown, Bobby Militello, Sammy Davis, Jr., Duke Ellington, the BPO, Amherst Symphony Orchestra and many other groups and musicians over his years in Buffalo and elsewhere. His students, such as James Brandon Lewis, Jesse McGinty, Josh Levitt and many more have found international success on both the jazz and classical stage. Carol is a lifetime member of Local 92-Buffalo Federation of Musicians as well as a lifetime member of the Colored Musicians Club. He’s been on faculty at Community Music School of Buffalo for nearly 45 years and has led the Carol McLaughlin Big Band for 30 years. Carol has been the Bandleader of the Carol McLaughlin Quintet for 20 years and led Magnitude for 10. He has spent 10 years in the Buffalo Jazz Workshop and 10 years at Sportsmen’s Tavern providing lunchtime music to local audiences. Carol also spent time with the Masten Park Boys Club, teaching music there. Carol was promoted to the post of Honorary Chair of the Jazz Department at Community Music School two years ago and has truly risen to the occasion.

By playing all over the WNY area Carol has contributed to the accessibility of the jazz genre. He and his bands play in all seasons and all weather, in parks, community associations, organizations, bars, the Broadway Market, at parties, and more. He schedules accessible public rehearsals where anyone can attend free of charge. He invites students and professional musicians alike to join his band and gives them the opportunity to perform publicly. Carol takes his music and the musicians to all corners of Buffalo – East, West, North and South – reaching as many community members as possible. Carol has specifically reached out to underserved communities with the intention of bringing orchestral music to anyone who would like to learn and perform.