[Trombone-l] Cleveland Orch Trombone Article in newspaper

[Roger Hecht]

Me

>> 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 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).

I don't know, either. I do not believe that the free market by itself is the
most efficient or socially productive system out there. I tend to believe in a mixture
of systems, taking the best from various sources. Not wishing to start a thread 
here, but we're inevitably going to see a different approach to health care 
in the US than what we have now, with central elements replacing some free market
ones.  

  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. 

I know nothing about the acting field, but it has always seemed to me that even 
among the people you have described, the percentage who are really successful is
small. Many is the time I see an actor do a terrific job in a character role and
never see him/her again.

Then again, it seems, anyway, that there is a much bigger market for actors than
musicians. Certainly the audience is bigger--at least until you start talking about
rock musicians, perhaps.

 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.

Quite so. It's still tough, though, and many many good people fall by the wayside
or through the cracks. 

>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?
>

Probably so, but there are fields that use licensing criteria to limit the number
of people entering that field. I've always believed that was the prime purpose
of the AMA--to limit the number of doctors, not always to the benefit of society.
The same with the ABA, I would presume. Someone on this list is a lawyer. You, George?
Anyway, I was once told that among the many reasons for not representing yourself
in court is the notion that, regardless of how brilliant you may be, the judge, 
a member of the ABA himself, is not going to be very happy with you, at least from
the onset. 

Practically speaking, though, I can't really disagree with what you said. I'm
more observing than qualitatively commenting, and I certainly have no solutions.
A musician's life is what it is. But it would be nice if the public schools 
would step up and assume a role in bringing this art to more students. 


Roger Hecht

Roger Hecht