“There are a lot of musicians who come here thinking that the most important thing is their art, and that other concerns—like making money—don’t matter.” Around the beginning of fourth year, though, “People start to get a little scared. They start thinking, ‘what am I gonna do next?'”
I think a lot of music schools and music departments in universities have done their students a disservice. I know I wasn’t told what to do with my degree once I had it. (I was fortunate; I won my audition while in college, but that was a long time ago. That doesn’t really happen much anymore, and there are more musicians and fewer orchestras these days.) No one taught us about business matters. No one said, “So what are your plans once you leave here?”
How much of the responsibility is on the instructors? How much on the students (or parents)? I honestly don’t know. But I do know we shouldn’t give our students the notion that they’ll manage to land that perfect symphony job. There aren’t any guarantees.
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