A major music academy in the USA is offering its alumni an award. And that’s a good thing because we live in an age when music alumni face challenging times. The Lang Langs and Yuja Wangs aside, virtually no classical musician is thriving after more than two years of restrictions posed by a global pandemic, while many of those who do, had to make a dramatic but successful career change.
Ironically, not only classical musicians today are more trained, educated, and informed than the legends of yesteryear, but they also have been paying the highest possible price for their university or academy tuition, and some have even assumed loans that they will still be paying 20 years down the road.
Some countries and their academies demand lower fees. In the US, the prices remain astronomical, prompting students, parents, and sponsors to wonder if it is worth it. It is my opinion that, in some cases, it is. But only if you know what you are doing, from the beginning to the middle to the end. Such self-consciousness is necessary for highly trained professionals who are also sensitive individuals in a competitive field.
Therefore, any help one can get in classical music’s narrow and unforgiving arena is worth mentioning. At this point, we should also mention the amount this fellowship will award. How much would you think it is? Half a million, perhaps, like the Gilmore Prizes of yesteryear, given for career development? Let’s be reasonable, 50,000 perhaps, which is about the annual tuition and expenses in places like the Juilliards and New Englands? No.
Around 10,000, then, the minimum a decent self-produced concert or recording will cost if minimally advertised. But let’s not get carried away. It may be a mere 5,000. This is what scholarship foundations would offer per year, on average, in most countries up to a few years ago.
Nope. It is 1,000!
One thousand dollars as support to a project by a worthy alumnus of a major music academy that aims to train the musical leaders of tomorrow.
One could claim that a grand is better than nothing. However, such offers do more harm than good. They indicate that major cultural institutions resort to symbolic gestures instead of getting down to business and helping worthy artists (who are, in a sense, living advertisement for their alma mater) make a difference. It also shows how much those degrees and training depreciate over time, so a grand is considered ‘assistance’ to such graduates.
After almost 30 years as a performer, composer, teacher, lecturer, and author about related issues to any career, I don’t know what one could do with 1,000. But hey, if prices have gone so low, I could establish my own scholarship foundation! I am pretty sure I can match that offer annually, even if I have to borrow from friends.
All jokes aside, cultural institutions’ primary focus can be none other than elevating the role and significance of serious artists in the eyes of society at large. And since we live on a primarily economic planet, this has also to do with money.
Declaring loud and clear that some of the best emerging musicians need financial emergency care, defeats that purpose.