Essay on the Class Divide in Classical Music

AsMother
Thu, 19 Sep 2019 01:32:06 +0000

@JeJeJe , I love your attitude!
We were quite poor for a long time, but my mother was kind enough to make certain in her will that my son’s education will be paid for.
But my son was a late musical bloomer, and when he DID bloom in early high school we could not afford anything but inexpensive local lessons and a summer jazz program at the University of North Florida, which was instrumental (no pun intended) in focusing his interest and allowing him to believe that he might have some talent (although it took a few more years for him to really start to feel that he was “good enough”).
But we, his parents, believed all along that music (as his high school chorus teacher said) “runs through his veins.” (When he was a baby, the only thing guaranteed to get him to stop crying and go to sleep was playing a CD of Verdi arias–“aria” being one of his first words.)
He’s now a Composition/Film-scoring major at Berklee, and for the first time in his life I think he feels that he’s where he truly belongs. Regardless of what he ends up doing as a musician, I would give both arms to make sure that he continues to do what he loves. He knows that the competition is fierce, but he is determined, and even if he comes nowhere near to becoming “the next Hans Zimmer” (his film-scoring idol), I will die happy knowing that he had the opportunity to do what he loves intensely.
The NY Times just ran an article about a Yale grad and former very successful banker (I think) and entrepreneur who is now homeless in LA. So you never know. All we can do is do our best to let them try to do what is most meaningful to them.
Signed,
A Hopeless Idealist