Expertise

The learning process in music is active and infinite. There is no point in a musician’s process where learning is complete and growth stops. I have been playing cello nearly every day for 24 years and am struggling through technique passages from Stutschewsky. There are unending degrees of difficulty and expertise within any activity, and I feel that we are collectively losing sight of this fact. The subjective nature of performed music combined with the infinite learning process create room for many displays of unethical behavior in the music field. In the United States, the current landscape still eerily resembles Blair Tindall’s book Mozart In The Jungle. The subjectiveness of art and the increasing lack of opportunity have reduced the individual’s ability to take risk. As a result there is reduced variety and creativity in offered concerts, as well as more mediocrity elevated beyond its earned quality. The number of colleges and universities offering music degrees in the United States has been expanding rapidly for a number of years partially due to the lack of jobs that Blair describes in her book. The number of teachers and students has increased, and I believe that there currently a greater number of well qualified professionals entering the field every year. But I also believe that the number of musicians seeking mastery for the totality of their lives is less than it was decades ago. Nicola Benedetti shared a similar sentiment and said, “Classical music is threatened by young people’s lack of basic discipline.” I believe that this does not just apply to young people but to everyone. Michael Johnson was interviewed about being the fastest man in the world and he said, “There are no shortcuts,” and “It takes what it takes.” This exact phrase was uttered to me by cellist Charlie Rasmussen when we were observing a concert as young adults in Vermont. My version of these statements is if you think you work harder than others, you don’t. Pablo Casals was practicing cello into his 90s, “Because I think I’m making progress.” János Starker believed that quote, “a musician is someone who thinks about music every day.” Someone with this mindset and dedication will eventually surpass the opinions of others. The question is are we heading in the right direction? Kodály wrote, “It is much more important who is the music teacher in Kisvarda than who is the director of the opera house in Budapest…for a poor director fails once, but a poor teacher keeps on failing for thirty years, killing the love of music in 30 generations of children.”

-For Anastasia