<p>Interesting article and not surprising in many ways. It is funny, the digital age has threatened the traditional music business (in part because it doesn’t adapt very well) but it has also opened opportunities. Bands who couldn’t get some idiot in an A and R department to listen to their music, can build a fan base through you tube and digital downloads. Chamber groups can play club gigs, much as rock/pop groups do, and build a following and not have to wait for Columbia Artists or some such group to decide they are worth representing. Classical performers are finding that they can ‘cross over’ and work with pop groups or whatever and not face the wrath of the ‘purists’ (to my dying day, I’ll never forget the story I read about Nigel Kennedy when he was at Juilliard, and Delay telling him to turn down an offer to play with Stephanne Grappeli at Carnegie Hall (doing jazz, obviously), because 'it would hurt your musical career, you wouldn’t be taken seriously if you did…and this folks was not the 1940’s, this was the 70’s…). </p>
<p>In classical the people who are going to be most disappointed are those who think the traditional path is the only way, those who think all you have to do is go to a top name music school, grind through your technique, and then find artists management (if a soloist), get into that top 5 orchestra, etc…what has happened is even the top students are finding that they need to do what ‘lesser’ musicians have always done, network, sell themselves and find new opportunities, and more importantly, build an audience. One of the things that music schools do a terrible job of IMO is impressing on the kids that they are performers, that when they walk out on the stage people are expecting the whole package, whether they are solo, in chamber or in an orchestra, that having impeccable technique is not enough. This isn’t limited to the classical world, there are people in the contemporary music world revered as guitar gods and such, who frankly as stage performers stink but are masters as sidemen and such…and then we had groups like The Cars, oye…)</p>
<p>What I tell my son, who is god forbid heading down this path, is that I wouldn’t be supporting his choice to go into music if I didn’t think he had the multi dimensions it takes to be a working musician at the ‘ordinary’ level, that his personality, stagecraft, intelligence and ability to connect and network with other musical kids will be a big help, whereas many of the ‘hotshots’ who think they will be the next big soloist are going to be in for a rude awakening when they find they don’t have the other skills (note, doesn’t mean music doesn’t give me some sleepless nights, it does, in terms of my S). Younger teachers seem to grasp that as well, though I think a lot of the classical music training world is still living in the 1940’s, despite all the classes they have and so forth (especially that admissions at the music schools seems pretty 1 dimensional to me, it is about playing perfectly, and musicality, stagecraft and the like seem to be very little of the process. The fact that it boils down to how well you play on an audition, rather then being more like academic admissions, tells the story I think as well).</p>