News

I was talking with a composer friend whose 12-year-old son, a gifted violinist, played for a teacher who is famous for training young virtuosi. The teacher asked the kid “Do you want to be a musician?” and the child replied “I think so, probably.” This teacher informed the father that the kid shouldn’t go into music because he wasn’t determined enough.

‍Seriously, what the $&#%*?There are a lot of good reasons not to go into music. Unless you get a major orchestral job, your life will consist of hard work cobbling together income from many sources, which can be stressful. Even the greatest string quartets today rely on income from university residencies. The obvious question: why work so hard if you can do something else that is easier and pays more?

There is a romantic notion that all musicians are in it because they love music so much. The truth is that even a place like Juilliard is full of highly-skilled students whose momentum and ambition carries them through school and maybe a career, but for whom making music is just a job. A study of symphony orchestra players found job satisfaction down there amongst prison guards. I’d argue those people might be better off doing something else.

And yet, for some, it is a deeply fulfilling life. Just because you can’t be “the best,” (what does that mean, anyway?) what does that have to do with whether someone should pursue a career? Do people major in chemistry or english or art history or political science for that reason?

I have friends who specialize in starting small children on violin and love what they do; others play in regional orchestras and are grateful that they can live and breathe great works by Beethoven and Mahler every time they go to work; musical therapists heal the sick with music; others are just ill-suited to working in an office and enjoy the irregular hours. The world is richer for them having pursued a career in music.

As someone who ran a music program at university for over two decades, it may come as a surprise that I’d never urge someone to go into music (including my own daughters). But it also isn’t my place to say don’t go into music.

A good teacher should spell out the challenges and work involved and let the student decide for themself. If a teacher thinks a student is destined for disappointment – so what? Young people learn and move on. At the very least, they’ll develop discipline along the way and experience time with incredible art they’ll carry within themselves their whole life.

The world is filled with graduates of music schools who went on to other professions. I don’t know anyone who regrets their degree in music, but I do know amateurs who ask themselves “what if?” A degree in music is no more or less useful than a degree in anything else. How many people are leading fulfilling lives who studied something different in school?  I’m willing to die on the hill of a liberal arts education.

It’s not for everyone, but I’m grateful for all that music has given me.

‍David Yang, Artistic Director