All Dressed Down, Nowhere to Go. Do Orchestras and Young Musicians Have a Future?
Colin Pinto-Martin, a percussionist currently in conservatory, wonders about his own future and the future of his art form. Conservatories across the country are producing highly skilled musicians, but if the art form has only declining audiences and declining interest, what does that mean for all those currently in training for the orchestras of tomorrow? Pinto-Martin considers the changes in audience, their waning familiarity with classical music and the growing informality of culture in general, and he sees tremendous uncertainty. The question then becomes what are the musicians themselves willing to do in order to change that future. He writes, “If we as musicians and artists don’t begin to adapt to a rapidly changing culture soon our craft will be as valuable as making buggies for horses.”
The Muse Dialogue offers some provocative thoughts and challenging questions from a young musician who argues that musicians themselves are partly responsible for the situation, and must take up responsibility for its future. Read on in “All Dressed Down, Nowhere to Go” (click here for full article).
