| One of the attitudinal problems seems to be that our culture places its greatest emphasis on things that distract us from reality: sports, television, video games and the like. (How much does someone like Shaq earn per year? Why does he need that much money?) Education brings reality to us (or, us to reality, depending on your view and attitude at the moment learning is taking place). This only seems to be increasing. Our fascination with all things superficial, false or covering up is leading us on an ever-increasing downward spiral, pulling us from reality.
There are16 full time orchestras in the US that pay a wage that would be decent enough to support a family while paying off student loans, buying a car, rent or mortgage, and beginning an investment in either retirement of your child’s college fund. Oh yeah…instruments cost a lot of money at that level, as well. A string player must take a mortgage to have the tools necessary to do his/her job; bassoons are almost as much as a car.
Thinking further, of those 16 orchestras, assuming each has a 4 person trumpet section, that leaves 64 positions that will do the above. How many people are graduating as trumpet performance majors from schools such as Julliard, Manhattan, Curtis, Boston Conservatory, Berklee, Oberlin and Eastman? (No particular order!) What are the odds that a job will be there when these folks graduate? The numbers, by the way, of brass players majoring in performance is in on a steady increase.
How are those folks supposed to repay their loans when the majority of them will have a degree that earns them a salary just above minimum wage or worse yet is unreliable? Many of them will work second jobs while playing with either several per-service groups or freelancing it. (Not many of those will come close to being as successful as Wilmer).
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-Glenn
"Roses have thorns; shining waters mud. Clouds and eclipses stain the moon and the sun; and history reeks of the wrongs we have done. After today, after today, consider me gone."- Sting |