<p>Well my kids have been in masterclasses at school that were free and one had a masterclass where we paid for it (total cost divided by the palying students). Has anyone had to pay for a masterclass where your private teacher wanted your kid to attend but they were not even going to be playing in the class?
We are not talking Midori but a local symphony big wig.</p>
<p>Yes…DD did several master classes arranged by her oboe teacher with a very highly regarded player. The kids split the cost of the master classes he gave. We (and she) felt they were very worth the money. If that had not been the case, we certainly wouldn’t have done it more than once. These professionals are giving their time to work with these young musicians and they deserve to be compensated.</p>
<p>Just FYI…when your student took a “free” masterclass at school…SOMEONE was paying for it. It might not have been coming out of YOUR pocket, but those giving the masterclass were paid by someone.</p>
<p>Occasionally there has been a charge for people not playing in the masterclass, but it has usually been quite small ($5 or $10 at most) and has applied to anyone in the “audience” including parents. Costs for masterclasses that my son has played in have ranged from free (most of them) to $80. We questioned our participation in the $80 one because the master wasn’t that fantastic and my son was only guaranteed 30 minutes on stage with the master, but we decided that the learning benefits and exposure to the master made it worthwhile.</p>
<p>Most masterclasses my kids have attended are divided, there are performers and auditors. Performers play and interact with the teacher. Auditors observe the teacher correcting and commenting on the performers playing or singing I guess. Auditors pay less but still pay.</p>
<p>It depends on who is running the masterclass on whether you are charged or not. For example, MSM has a lot of masterclasses during the school year (and with amazing people, I am talking top level performers and soloists), and most of them are open to the public, my son goes to a lot of them to watch, and they are free, and at Mannes same thing. Also been to master classes at music festivals held not far from where we live, and they were open and free. I have never been to a masterclass where they charged admission for observers, but I can understand why they would do so, since unless the person is on faculty or associated with the festival, they do have to be paid.</p>
<p>BTW, if anyone lives in the NYC area, check out MSM’s website for public masterclasses, it really is a great resource.</p>
<p>thumper is right - the performer giving the masterclass is paid by someone, either the students and/or observers or the institution sponsoring the class. </p>
<p>When the Vienna Philharmonic was in NY, musicians held masterclasses sponsored by Mannes. S2, a grad student, participated at no personal expense. </p>
<p>S4 is playing in a Peter Stumpf cello masterclass at U. of Iowa on Sunday and as far as I know is not paying anything other than transportation costs to get from Des Moines to Iowa City.</p>
<p>Just to clarify, the master classes I was referring to were not sponsored by a school, masterclasses at Crane are also free to students.</p>
<p>I was referring to master classes run in an outside space or auditorium by the performer or the teacher. As an example, my daughter attended a Jeanne Galway Master Class as an auditor at the Tilles Center on Long Island not sponsored by CW Post (where the Tilles Center is located) and we paid a fee.</p>
<p>She also attended a Jeanne Baxtresser Master Class at Riverside Church and paid a fee.</p>