[Trombone-l] Cleveland Orch Trombone Article in newspaper

[Roger Hecht]

Me

>>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.
>
>The ones that are well known to the general public are HUGELY
>successful, but there are plenty more who are making a very good
>living and solid reputation among their peers.  Contrast Yo Yo Ma with
>Joe Alessi for an example.  So just because character actors don't
>make $20M per picture, they still do fine.

Maybe the ones I think of end up doing theater. Some I just never see 
to see any more. Too bad, actually. I used to get a kick out of a lot 
of these people. A show I used to like years ago, Rockford Files, had 
tons of these guys.


>> >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.
>
>I am a lawyer, but I'm a defender of the license requirement (although
>you may think I'm biased because I'm a member of this particular
>union).  But lawyers who don't know what they're doing can really make
>somebody worse off for years to come; musicians who don't know what
>they're doing will ruin only an evening.  :)
>
>I agree that it seems like a dysfunctional system, but I'm not
>convinced we need licensing to protect the general public from poor
>musicians, or to prevent young players from being disappointed if they
>don't get enough work in the first few years.

I'm not against licensing, though what I read about the AMA years ago 
led me to think that it was unfairly restricting admissions to 
medical schools. Now you lawyer guys. Can't complain about licensing 
restricting the number of lawyers. We have lots of lawyers. But I do 
want the licensing process to serve a purpose in upholding the 
standards of a profession.

Licensing musicians? I don't think I was advocating that. It would be 
interested in devising a way to do it. Might make an intersting 
movie. I think I was responding to what you said in response to my 
mentioning the old Soviet system about setting conservatory 
admissions to the number of jobs available. That of course is easier 
to do in a state run system.



Roger Hecht