Nashville’s new Black symphony is powered by a love of classical music, and hopes to make it more representative

Alexandro Nichols steps onto a podium and taps his baton on the music stand in front of him.

“Y’all wanna cook a little bit?” Nichols says to the musicians in front of him, speeding up the tempo. “Let’s cook a little bit! Let’s see what we got. Show me what you’ve got!”

This is one of the first rehearsals of the Nashville African American Wind Symphony.

It’s a new group made up of 52 Black classical musicians — some are doctors, others lawyers, educators, engineers and politicians. Many of them studied music in college, but set down their instruments years ago.

Now, they have a reason to pick them back up again.

The Nashville African American Wind Symphony rehearses inside a band room on Tennessee State University’s campus.

The group is a dream turned reality for euphonium player and founder Bruce Ayers.

“People don’t really look at us as performing classical music or having an interest in this type of genre,” Ayers says. “So it was really important for us to create something that was unique that gave us a voice and a chance.”

A few years ago, he was teaching music at a public high school just a few miles away from Nashville’s Schermerhorn Symphony Center. His students, who were mostly Black, were invited to perform there.

But Ayers quickly realized that none of them had ever been to the symphony before.

He wanted to create a different kind of symphony that could bridge that gap.

“I wanted them to see people that look like them doing this type of music because it’s important,” he says. “And so I think if they see that representation, it will create opportunities for them and their futures.”

Bruce Ayers is the founder of the Nashville African American Wind Symphony.

So he started assembling a team. The first person he thought of was Ashley Crawford — a TSU music professor and a performer who goes by the stage name, Flutebae.

“I wrote Ashley this corny little question,” Ayers says. “It was like: I have this crazy idea, and I’m going to give it a go, but it’s not going to work unless you’ll be my COO.”

Next to him, Ashley Crawford laughs, recalling Ayers had even made a PowerPoint presentation.

“And I couldn’t say no,” she says.

Crawford says she wishes something like this symphony was around when she was younger.

“Growing up, I never saw that representation of a Black classical female flutist taking the world by storm, or even coming out on stage, sitting first chair or second chair in a symphony,” she says. “This was a lane I had to begin creating on my own.”

Crawford says forging that path in classical music came with an immense amount of pressure.

It’s a world where perfectionism is expected. And being the only Black woman in a room full of mostly white people made her feel like there was an increased scrutiny on her. She says she felt like she was under a magnifying glass.

Ashley Crawford is a classical flute player and the president of the Nashville African American Wind Symphony.

“The moment you mess up you feel like you failed — not only yourself, but the representation of the entire community,” she says, “like I put a stain on it now.”

That took a toll on her mental health during college and after graduation. She says it sucked some of the joy out of playing music.

Now, she pulls up a chair to play along with a room full of Black classical musicians — many of whom have experienced the same things that she has. It’s given her new freedom.

“I just want to make music. Either you’re with me, or not,” Crawford says. “This moment on stage is about what I can do and what I’m sharing with the audience. And you can take it or leave it.”