Does classical music have a future?

Great discussions on Greg Sandow's blog this week:
(Be sure to read the comments.)

Making a Living

How will classical musicians make a living? The old paradigm gives you ways to do that (playing in an orchestra, for instance), even though there aren't enough jobs for everyone who graduates from music school. But the new paradigm doesn't seem to offer much. I've talked about this with an artists' manager at one of the big managements, who's certainly in a position to know how musicians support themselves. He's also one of the few people (though I think their numbers are growing) in big-time managements who really love alternative performances. And he vociferously thinks that the new performances can't support the musicians who play in them.

Wonderful time

What other school requires classical music students to improvise? Eric and I couldn't think of any. The concert showed how much these kids loved improvising, and how fearless they were. They worked out their plans (to hear them tell it) only minutes before they came on stage, and that only seemed to make them looser, and encourage them to have fun. Apparently they move away from improvising in their junior and senior years. And not all the music faculty are down with improvising. Still -- it plainly opens the students' creativity, and, again, they plainly love doing it.

Don't miss the great posts on our own MYO blog. Less controversial, more personal.