When Rosaria Macera looked out at the crowd that packed into Newark United Methodist Church on Sunday for Her Tyme 20xx’s Black History Month concert, she was struck by the wide variety of audience members, including many people who wouldn’t typically attend an orchestra concert.

“People came for different reasons. Some people came because it was Black history, and that’s what appealed to them. Some people came because it was a concert,” said Macera, who directs the all-women orchestra. “But what unified everybody was that it was a community event.”