Posted by no name on December 20, 2003 at 02:55:37:
In Reply to: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Teaching and reality posted by Rick Denney on December 19, 2003 at 14:12:06:
I was intrigued by the back and forth but I think you missed the point Rick. Its not the difference to be either rich and dumb or poor and smart. The question I originally posed more revolves around expectations of livelyhood and what a career means and the role of schools and the market in that. Mostly to a young person in this context who can only rely on the advice of elders since just before college we all had really no clue about anything.
Being educated for the sake of it is so subjective and if thats your bag then fine but dont assume that those who go to school to do something specific is any less noble or worthy.
Young musicians are routinely believing that they are perpetuating the noble art and that that means something. But in the US it simply doesnt. If it did mean something to anyone but other musicians, our culture would respect it by paying for it in actual performance attendance and a renaissance of musical career options.
Theres an academic context which has a business goal to further music performance. However, in the US, in its current state, there is no job for the common, simply competent orchestra musician. There is only a job for the teachers of them, and maybe some jobs for the superstars.
Students in orchestra performance dont want to be superstars and they arent missing the boat on higher learning by wanting to perform above all else. Thats just silly. The fact that YOU HAVE TO BE A SUPERSTAR to make a decent orchestra living in the US is a shame. Notice I didnt say music living. I mean to refer to orchestra performance only since thats what I went to school for and I wasnt alone. I wanted to play not get rich in an orchestra but merely to play in a decent orchestra preferably in the US making enough to get by. With so many schools hawking the stuff with scholarships it seems like it could be possible. - not
But since you bring up money as if thats what students are after with orchestra playing or that that means success lets look at the cost of taking just one symphony audition in the
US for tuba.
Some time spent doing serious study, lets say 4 years, 8-20,000 X 4 years 32K-80K total,
Two decent instruments CC and F, 8-15K CC tuba, 5K F, 13K-20K total
Books, lessons, CDs, summer programs on avg 5-15K total
Cost of practice time which
would be spent learning a job vocation
or just simply working for 3-8 years
waiting for a decent opening...I wont even go there its huge
Cost of flights, hotel and rental car to just one audition 1-2K
So just to walk into a real orchestra tuba audition in the US, it costs between 50 and 100K.
And youll lose.
Since music students rarely have this kind of dough without serious family financial support and financial aid or killing themselves trying to go to school, work and practice four to six a day, the fact that 99% of them in tuba performance will never play a single note as a professional in an orchestra that will pay their bills in the US is telling.
I admire the musicians who struggle and suffer for a while but only to a point.
Anyone who in society toils so hard and sacrifices so much only to be left behind by the rest of society (who simply show up to work and goes home and have rewarding middle class (even *educated*) lives for a pittance of sacrifice) are either victims of society or victims of their own choices. Its not about being rich its about whether theres even a point to any of it besides rationalized self gratification.