Sigma Alpha Iota

sai-national.org • Winter 2026 11 Musicians In Action In 2024, Dr. Rodney Dorsey received an unexpected phone call—from Captain Darren Lin, Associate Director of "The President's Own" United States Marine Band. Together with Equity Arc, they were planning a performance opportunity for underrepresented students to play alongside the US Marine Band. Equity Arc "provides specialized mentoring support for young BIPOC musicians and helps institutions take meaningful steps toward equity and inclusion." (equityarc.org) They are a national coalition in the United States who develops programs for underrepresented classical musicians, and also aims to increase diversity in orchestras. The US Marine Band has a long history of collaboration with educational programs for young musicians, and they invited Dr. Dorsey to participate in this most recent collaboration. The plan was for students affiliated with Equity Arc to play with the US Marine Band in Washington, DC, with several guest conductors. As a Professor of Music, and strong proponent of young musicians, Dr. Dorsey wholeheartedly agreed to participate. But in February 2025, only a month before the schedule performance, the collaboration came to a halt. An executive order banned DEI programs from the federal government and the military, rendering it impossible for the US Marine Band to continue this collaboration. At that point, the Marines had already held auditions and thirty students had been selected to perform with them. But despite these efforts, the concert was canceled. News spread quickly. Retired military musicians started reaching out to Equity Arc and Dr. Dorsey, asking if they could help somehow. Being veterans, they weren't bound to the executive order, and were more than willing to participate in the collaboration in place of active military. Major news outlets were also interested in the story, including CBS and CNN. Dr. Dorsey had been attending a conference in Tennessee when he received a phone call from his assistant—CNN was trying to get in touch with him, as they were doing a story about the canceled event. At first, he was hesitant to talk with them. "This isn't my world," he thought to himself. "I'm not sure I should go on CNN." At the same time, CBS offered Equity Arc their own proposal: They offered to fund the entire event, including plane tickets and other travel costs to get the students to DC. They would also host a segment about the concert and Equity Arc on 60 Minutes, including a broadcast of the full concert. With only a week before the scheduled concert date, Dr. Dorsey agreed to take on the project. What started as guest-conducting a couple pieces had transformed into programming and organizing the entire event. Everyone was on board. Most of the retired military musicians still lived around DC, so they were local and ready to play. Over the course of that week, Dr. Dorsey created a full program and acquired permissions from composers and publishers to perform the music. Georgetown University was on spring break at the time, and their staff helped secure the Music Center at Strathmore for the upcoming weekend. Two days before the concert, Dr. Dorsey and members of Equity Arc met in person for the first time to iron out final details. Everything was coming together, some would say almost too easily. The new concert was a true collaborative effort: BAND continued on page 12 A Band That Looks Like America For more information about Equity Arc, visit www.equityarc.org. Conductor Dr. Rodney Dorsey Conductor Dr. Rodney Dorsey leads Equity Arc in a concert leads Equity Arc in a concert including retired veterans. including retired veterans. PHOTOS equityarc.org PHOTOS equityarc.org

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