We’ve been this way many times before. Let me paraphrase: how to get those of non-European origin enthralled with what has been traditionally presented as an exclusively European/Caucasian art form?

It’s one of those questions – like why do bankers remain unpunished? – that is asked repeatedly, with little or no satisfactory forward movement. As with the bankers, some reasons are simple, some more complex; as with the bankers, they are also questions of will and priorities.

In years/generations past institutional racism, of commission and omission, was undoubtedly at play. With no possibility of entry into mainstream – read Caucasian – ensembles, the vast majority of talented, serious musicians of colour went into jazz and later pop, where there was at least a possibility of expression and financial self-sufficiency. These days however, even in the most elite classical organisations, skin colour alone does not guarantee automatic exclusion. While there will remain the odd mostly private exception, among professional musicians, from top to bottom, it’s all about the music: can he or she play at the necessary, Himalayan level and in a manner commensurate with whatever ensemble’s characteristic style? But how to achieve that ascendency without the requisite tools and knowledge of the terrain?

It’s easy – and accurate – to point at education and the removal of music from core curricula as a primary root of the problem. You can’t fall in love with a music if you’ve never heard it or known that you’ve been hearing it (behind films, adverts, classic cartoons). If you don’t come from an environment where western classical music is played and/or revered, where are you to learn of it, save from outside influences? But of absolutely equal importance: once ignited, such love cannot survive without continued support.

In the past 20 years any number of orchestras, private charities and government quangos have established small programmes bringing music appreciation, instruments and tuition to targeted schools; but students scratching and tooting away on needs-must cheap-and-cheerful instruments in group lessons a few times a week are but the smallest baby steps on the road to the National Youth Orchestra, conservatories and professional ensembles. Beyond talent and dedication, prerequisites for these include access to better instruments, concentrated and sophisticated tuition, participation in elite music holiday camps and programmes – all of which require an investment many students of colour do not have at their disposal. Limited bursaries and instrument loan programmes are available. More would be most helpful; but you can’t take advantage of something that you don’t know exists. For newcomers to this world, informed guidance every step of the way – for years – is a necessity, as well as support in the face of socio-cultural disdain militating against its uptake, especially for those for whom being “cool” is also a priority.

Cultural denigrations and marginalisations of classical music are legion: in television and films, young people interested in classical music are depicted as nerdish beyond redemption, unless they ditch that classical for some form of pop; adults are weird, villainously rich, or pathetically old, and always white. Stories abound of blaring “classical music” used as a deterrent to youthful assembly.

Save for a willingness to bask in the messianic glamour of El Sistema’s Venezuelans, UK politicians are loth to be seen enjoying so “elitist” a pastime. Newspaper reports of recording industry business transactions never include a listing of the classical arms or artists of the companies in question. Admittedly, these artists aren’t any company’s largest sellers, but they exist without embarrassment, and inclusion could make inroads into the collective consciousness. I think I can safely assume that all national arts editors are supportive of the survival of classical music in theory, but perhaps a conscious effort to introduce some of the younger, edgier classical musicians, including some of colour, into music coverage aimed at their younger demographic – many of whom can’t even conceive of classical music as music – might serve to break down some of these increasingly arbitrary walls. Small steps, but part of a process.

(Pictorial evidence from the medieval/early Renaissance of African musicians in European courts reveals ample evidence in matters of harmony and rhythm, eg baroque syncopation, that support notions of a north/south musical exchange narrative akin to the east/west of Yo-Yo Ma’s Silk Road project. No music has ever been hermetically sealed from cross-pollinations be they conscious or subliminal. Such exploration might pique a sense of ownership for those who need that kind of encouragement; but I digress, that for another time.)

And then there are the gate-keepers, the holy idiots who police performances with trainspotter obsessiveness and the diktat that only those who worship in these often publicly funded temples with the same knowledge and style of commitment as themselves are welcome. While stories abound of newcomers of every colour and age being castigated and ridiculed, for the venturing person of colour unaware of the equal-opportunity nature of this bad behaviour, the default position will be “I/we’re unwelcome because of race”. As strangers in the village we expect the occasional curious look even when we take pains to adopt that village’s tribal behaviour. Until we become familiar with the terrain, we enter new villages suspecting for reasons of history that someone, maybe more, will be offended by our being there. Will they be civilised? Micro-aggressive? Act out? Will I have the wherewithal to ignore them and enjoy what I came for? Will I ever want to return? As in the name of urban economic health, sacred cows in Indian cities are being gentled into less traffic-disrupting locations, a step in the right direction of classical audience development might be dampening such offputting behaviour, making it as socially unacceptable as spitting or yelling “Fire!”. Like Shakespeare, this music belongs to all and can only benefit from a willingness to welcome and encourage fresh blood into its midst.

• Candace Allen in the author of Soul Music: The Pulse of Race and Music (Gibson Square Books). She and violinist Tai Murray are in conversation with Tom Service on 9 April to discuss Class, Race and Classical Music at the English Speaking Union, Dartmouth House, London W1