Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Statement

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion statement (September 2021)

AOTOS aims to serve a community of singing teachers who seek to learn further, and develop their work in a supportive and inclusive environment. Our members work in varied settings, with people and genres as wide-ranging as the music industry itself. We aspire to be a welcoming and diverse association for singing teachers, providing further training and education in all genres, styles and settings, through an ever-broadening range of conferences, courses, webinars, social media forums, newsletters and publications.

We commit to the active encouragement and engagement of a membership that represents the full panorama of singing teaching. We wish to provide a safe space and community for our members, where they feel able to discuss with mutual respect all matters pertaining to singing and teaching singing, and engage in learning and professional development. We hope this will inspire our members to develop as inclusive a practice as possible in their own spheres.

We welcome anyone into AOTOS, regardless of their unique identifiers. This includes but is not limited to age, culture, disability, economic circumstances, ethnicity, faith, gender identification, impairment, neuro-diversity, race or sexual orientation. We reject language or attitudes that are exclusive or deny the validity of any contribution in our forums, events or discussions based on those unique identifiers.

We recognise that we have much to learn: we aim to deepen our understanding and, hand in hand with our membership, we will guide each other actively and compassionately in order to tackle and discuss difficult questions around diversity, equality and inclusion.

AOTOS Diversity and Inclusion Steering Group:
Nicki Kennedy (NYCGB), Rachel Sherry (Corporates), Pamela Hay (Editor), Nick Duncombe (South East Area Representative), Carrie Birmingham (North Area Representative), Edwin Pitt Mansfield (Chair Elect)

for and on behalf of the AOTOS Council