Getting admitted to a music conservatory

EastCoastGirl715
Mon, 29 Nov 2010 13:47:00 +0000

Greetings:

This is a little off-subject, but I’m having a hard time understanding the rule that your daughter must quit playing the violin if she is not accepted into a top conservatory. I cannot imagine forcing any child to quit doing something she loves simply because s/he has not risen to someone else’s expectations.

If playing the violin is something that gives her great pleasure and self-esteem, why should she quit? I’d pose this question whether your daughter was 6 or 16. The fact that she already has a college degree suggests to me that she has plenty of brains, maturity and life experience to decide where music fits into her life.

There are so many parents who simply want their children to put the TV remote down and develop a skill - any skill - that they will enjoy for a lifetime. You have a daughter with great passion and talent for the violin, and there is talk of forcing her to give this up? Please, please reconsider this course of action. Careers take various unexpected paths, but the values you instill in your child will last a lifetime. Do you really want her to look back on her youth and remember how much she loved the violin and how much she hated you for taking it away from her simply because, in your wife’s eyes, she wasn’t good enough?