I. Don’t. Think. So. Probably not in my lifetime, although it is going away in some places. But the all-black or black and white rut is so engrained throughout the world as one of the many ludicrous traditions of the conservative classical music field. Well, it’s either all-black or black and white.

Pretty colour is not allowed, except for (female) soloists. And female soloists are allowed to wear whatever they want and they usually show up half-naked with a bare chest and arms as if their upper body is always overheated, doing their best to expose deep cleavage. Is this an attempt to “sex up” their performance, rather than allow their performance to stand on its own? Whereas male soloists usually wear the usual and predictable formal tux or all-black or black and white attire. Male soloists are usually all covered up like a monk. There’s quite a double standard — hypocrisy — between the performance attire allowed for females and that required for guys.

Concert attire is changing slightly. Amsterdam comes to mind. Some of their Orchestra Choruses are breaking out of this nonsense to some degree with the Men wearing suits (not black but rather a shade of green) and each guy wearing a different coloured tie. That looks nice and it adds colour.

In the UK, there’s more of a trend with choristers wearing all black (black shirts and black pants/skirts) and not the black and white rut.

Orchestras? Some are in the black and white rut and will remain there. Some are moving to all-black.

I don’t know who started this nonsense of wearing “formal” attire just because one is performing on a stage. Part of the reason that classical music has the stuffy reputation it does it because of these outdated traditions about concert attire. One concert reviewer in his review wrote, “Just look how they dress on stage!” Implying there w/could be more interest in said orchestra if they didn’t look the way they do: formal, stuffy, uptight, conservative and so forth.

I remember years ago when the University of Maryland Chorus wore blue shirts (medium shade) and black pants/skirts for the United Nations Peace Concert in the Kennedy Center Concert Hall with the National Symphony Orchestra. Normally, the University of Maryland Chorus wore white shirts and black pants/skirts. (Then later the women started wearing black dresses which Dr Traver told me, “They hate them because of the fabric.” But they looked nice and were a wrap-around style.) Traditionally, blue is the colour signifying peace so that’s why The Maryland Chorus wore blue shirts. I guess that was Dr Traver’s idea. I’d never seen a Chorus in blue and black and they really looked nice. I was very impressed. I remember that to this day even though it was decades ago. When I performed with Norman Scribner’s Choral Arts Society of Washington in the Kennedy Center, the women wore blue dresses. That colour looked nice with the men in black and white. So I guess Norman wanted some colour on stage too.

These days, the 20s and 30s conformist crowd in our society are wearing all-black or black and grey or black/grey and white 365 days a year. They claim it’s so they don’t have to think about what they’re going to wear each day — just put on all-black every day — and don’t have to deal with matching colours. That’s a problem for these people? Matching colours? Ever heard of a colour wheel? Even in the hottest temperatures, one sees these people wearing all-black in blazing heat. Then they wonder why they’re hot and sweating? Doh. Stupid is in. Shallow conformity of wearing all-black is clearly more important to them than their comfort level. They think they look “classy” (I can’t stand that word) in all black when really they look quite conservative and like they’re going to or returning from a funeral. My neighbour said to me recently when I complimented her on the colours she was wearing, she said: I’m so sick of seeing people in all-black or black and grey. Well, they’re not just wearing those drab, dull and depressing colours. I’ve seen the interiors of their apartments, condos, and homes. The walls are even grey (how can they detect mold growing on them, especially in the bathroom?) or even black walls. The furnishings are also black and grey. The whole place is black and grey or black, grey and white. The 20s and 30s crowd are obsessed with depressing-looking black and grey.

But I live under no illusions that performance concert dress is likely to change much in my life time because it’s so steeped in conservative tradition and these ridiculous traditions can take forever to change, if they ever change at all. I suggested some time ago that the silly flower tradition at the end of performances be abandoned and orchestra mis-management give organic chocolates to the performers instead. I’ve yet to see that happen. I bet nobody — especially the guys who seem to think that their fragile masculinity is endangered or eroded by accepting flowers (especially the sexist guys of the older generation who enjoy giving their gift of flowers to the closest female violinist) — would give their organic chocolates away the way they do their flower bouquets.