The Well-Tempered Ear

Classical music: As the beginning of a new school year approaches, a parent makes the case for letting students study and major in music and then pursue a musical career – no matter how difficult it seems in the bad job market today.

By Jacob Stockinger

As the beginning of another new school year approaches, a good and loyal friend of this blog wrote in to say that others should read this essay that she found on-line. It defends students who want to study and even major in music and then go on to pursue a professional career in music. (Below is a photo of the University of Wisconsin-Madison Chamber Orchestra.)

This comes at a welcome moment, especially in the wake of the two stories I recently posted by Paul Solman (below), the longtime and prize-winning economics reporter for PBS’ “The Newshour” and a Distinguished Fellow now teaching journalism at Yale University.

In one story Solman explored how difficult it is to pursue music as a career in such a difficult job market as we have today.

Here is a link to that post and story with sources that included gifted student at the Juilliard School and professional musicians:

https://welltempered.wordpress.com/2013/07/13/classical-music-beauty-is-big-business-and-a-hard-job-pbs-economics-reporter-paul-solman-insightfully-explores-how-hard-it-is-to-find-good-jobs-for-even-the-most-talented-musicians-and-othe/

And then Solman followed it up with a story, using some of the sources, about how young musicians should develop entrepreneurial skills.

Here is a link to that story:

https://welltempered.wordpress.com/2013/07/27/classical-music-todays-young-classical-musicians-need-to-develop-skills-as-business-entrepreneurs-according-to-a-very-credible-newshour-report-by-ace-pbs-economics-reporte/

And here is the blog essay by a parent who works in music making the case that young students should indeed be allowed to pursue their dreams of a musical m career and not dissuaded towards a “real” career.

It makes for good reading and perhaps sage advice. So here is a link:

http://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20130728144536-52594-let-the-kid-study-music-already

Along similar lines, here is a story about the famous Berklee College of Music (below) in Boston that is linking up with a business program:

http://www.boston.com/yourcampus/news/berklee/2013/08/berklee_launches_first_all-online_mba_in_music_business.html

How does the blog essay defending musical careers compare with the realities, the fears and the rewards that you, your children and others you know have experienced?

The Ear – -who likes and favors a flexible liberal arts education education and who thinks we often end up making a living and having a career in a field we never expected to enter — wants to hear.