[Trombone-l] Cleveland Orch Trombone Article in newspaper

[George Carr]

> As it is, we have just enough of these programs to turn out a huge number of performers but not enough to turn out audiences. This problem become exacerbated because America does not limit the supply of musicians in any way other than in the performing-end market place. Within reason, almost anyone who wants to get a performance degree can get one somewhere. Often it comes without any preparation for failure to dent that performance marketplace. Many of these people go into teaching, where they turn out more performers.
>
> Harsh as it may sound, there may be a place for the old Soviet system of limiting music conservatory admissions according to the real need for musicians. Or at least some system for planning.

I have to agree with you, to some extent.  It seems like the biggest
complaint of most working musicians is the competition for more work:
freelancers feel like they're constantly auditioning for the next
session, orchestra players are afraid to leave a tenured job because
of the difficulty of ever getting another, jazz players don't even
have a chance to go on the road for a living wage any more.  As much
as the audition committees have to weed out players that haven't
prepared well enough, there seem to be more and more qualified players
and fewer and fewer jobs (and by extension, audiences).

I don't know if some sort of official limit on the marketplace of
talent is the best idea (my free-market efficiency economics classes
from college are still nagging at me).  Compare musicians with actors:
there are way too many of them for the available work, and the few
that are very good AND have good people skills don't have too much
trouble navigating the path to steady work.  And the folks who try and
fail at acting as a career eventually drop out of the game and find
other work, perhaps in a related field: stage directing, arts
administration, film production, etc.  The same thing happens in other
fields, too: dancers shift to choreography, comedians shift to
jokewriting, athletes shift to coaching, etc., etc.

So it's not all bad that not everyone who trains as a performer
doesn't get full-time work.  There aren't any other fields where a
degree guarantees a job; why should music be any different?

George