To be completely honest, the implications of only playing music of the past is not really something I’ve ever put a lot of thought into, and this thought experiment brought up a lot of points for me that I had never really considered. As much as I absolutely love Western classical music, the majority of it is written by dead white men, most of whom were quite racist. This obviously creates a lot of issues in regards to it being performed today. I don’t think there is anything inherently wrong with performing or listening to this music, but it is incredibly important to by mindful of this, which is something I have always tried to do. But something that I had not thought about very much before is what it means to only perform music by these composers. Personally, I love listening to music of today, but I very rarely perform it, which I am realizing is a little bit problematic. As performers, we are given an opportunity to share music with others, and we have the ability to use this opportunity to share the message and art of female, non-binary, and/or BIPOC artists. If we use this opportunity only to share the message of dead white men, we are doing a disservice to those around us. On the other hand, while I think it should be with a sort of mental annotation, I still think it so important to continue to perform these works, for so many different reasons. When I first imagined all traces of past music being erased, it was a truly terrifying thought to me. Personally I am a singer, and while I think it is fun to sing contemporary music of today, I cannot compare it to the feeling I get singing music of the past. If I could no longer perform these works, I would have to completely change who I am as an artist, which again is not something I’d thought about before, and it’s making me realize that even though I’m sure I will always sing classical music, there is also so much contemporary music of today that I could also be sharing with people. In regards to the Nietzsche quote, I fully agree. I think that it is important to continue to perform music of the past, but to look at it in a contemporary light, and understand the context in which it was written versus the current climate of today.