<p>This has been discussed a lot, and the reality is that many, many more kids major in performance than there is the likelyhood of them making a career in music,that is a fact, and in some ways it always has been true. There are statistics that talk about there being 15000 music degrees issued each year in the US alone (I assume that is BM and BA combined, including composition, academic music,etc)…it is amazing given how tough it is to make in music, how many schools have added performance programs (MIT in recent years, other schools), in some ways it seems to go against supply and demand, that is for sure. There are programs that have low or no audition standards, for example, and it is not surprising people ask what kids from there will do. </p>
<p>And that leaves out the surge in musicians, not just from traditional places like Europe, but the flood coming from Asia as well (Korea and China, and to a certain extent Japan). This comes with many traditional employers, like symphony orchestras, experiencing financial hard times. When a position opens up in a big orchestra, like the NY Phil or Philadelphia et al, they will have a lot of people auditioning for that position, and those happen rarely, in part because a lot of musicians hang on into their 70’s and even 80’s. Other jobs, like Broadway pit orchestra jobs, have dwindled, and movie music has shifted mostly to eastern europe where wage rates are low. </p>
<p>And yes, if you look at the numbers of even kids graduating from places like Juilliard and Curtis and so forth, if you track it over time it often is an eye opener, I believe at graduation something like 50% end up not even trying to go into music or whatever they studied, and within 10 years, I believe it pushes close to 90% who aren’t in music in what they studied (some go on into arts admin and such, which is related)…</p>
<p>It is why people on here who know that world try to be realistic about what it is like, that even if you get into a Juilliard or Curtis et al, that there are no guarantees. There are people who believe getting into one of those programs is gonna make them a star, and they end up really disillusioned when they get into the real world, in the strings world many of them think they are going to be the next great soloist, and then find out a)that is next to impossible b)isn’t what it is held out to be and c) because they focused on that and have an ego to go along with it, don’t get along with others. </p>
<p>Okay, so why then do kids go into it? Hopefully, because they love music for the right reasons and want to give it their best shot at trying to be in it. Going in assuming you will be a soloist or will be in a major orchestra off the bat is problematic, being the best you can be is one thing, but it also is shooting for the moon and not thinking about what gravity will do, so to speak. The kids who have the best chance of making it IMO are the ones who have the attitude like they want to make music, be able to live, and are open and willing to looking at all avenues, while recognizing it is difficult all along. My answer would be that if you are going into music, if you think of a specific outcome, you likely will find disappointment and failure, and while no degree guarantees success, arts have never been particularly easy. In a sense, going into music has some of the same characteristics that entrepeneurs have, which is they realize how difficult what they are doing is, they realize there are no guarantees, yet they are willing to risk failure to get their dreams. The person who majors in accounting to get that solid job is probably pretty unlikely to create the next big thing, whereas the person who dreams, who leaps into it, very well might. One thing you cannot be as an entrepeneur is be afraid to fail, most do, several times, before hitting it big, and with musicians, they will fail many times, too, won’t get past the audition, won’t have a steady job, and like the entrepeneur, they work towards making their own luck, all while looking at the goal of ‘making it’. </p>
<p>So what do performance majors do? They hustle, they network, they audition for jobs, they create their own careers. If it doesn’t work out, they still have a college degree, whether it is instrumental or voice they have gained a lot of skills that would be useful to any employer, and to be honest, as a hiring manager, seeing someone who dedicated themself to music like that, went through everything they do, would be more attractive then the kid who took the straight and easy path (usually laid out by a parent), if I had a kid who majored in finance or accounting I would probably lean towards the kid with the music degree; in IT, there are more than a few ex performance and music majors:). They always have options, and the experience of heading for their dreams, working towards them, is experience you may not get following a straight and true path <em>shrug</em>. </p>
<p>To be honest, if someone looks at a performance degree and their first thought is how likely it is to get a job, I would recommend thinking about something else. While I don’t exactly encourage delusional thinking or a delusion that this is easy, I don’t, if worries about getting a job is that strong a factor, then no matter how good they are, they should stay away from performance, because in a sense I think that will end up becoming a self fulfilling prophesy, that they will fail because they always have that idea of easy failure in the front of their mind and it will block them, rather than have being a musician first with the though of ‘what can I do if it doesn’t work out’ always at the back of their mind, big difference. One of the things others have pointed out a lot is that often performance majors end up in other fields, but still make music, play in smaller orchestras part time, teach, play in ensembles non professionally, the music is always with them, even if they don’t make it a career as such. If a kid studies fine arts, painting, but ends up as a high end real estate broker, but paints for their own enjoyment, is that a bad thing? It is the same with with music, even if they don’t end up playing in an orchestra or whatever, it is always with them, and I think it also gives them life skills few courses of study do.</p>
<p>I do think far too many kids go into music with stars in their eyes and end up disappointed, I think that music schools and programs have way, way oversold demand, I do think if there is something else someone thinks they may want to do it may be better and easier to go after that rather than the road of being a musician, but I also think it is a road worth taking for the sake of taking it, that as long as the kid understands how hard it is, has a love for it, and is willing to go for it, that they won’t be irrevocably hurting themselves, either, which is one of the biggest myths of these days, that trying and failing is unacceptable, a disaster that will wreck your whole life, etc…</p>