Hamburgers. As long as there is a demand for them, there will be supply. It is as simple as that. Economic success occurs when the demand is greater than the supply. Conversely, challenges occur when the supply is greater than the demand. This is true for all commodities, nations, people, industries, and schools. No matter how much manipulation of the situation occurs, over time supply and demand reigns supreme over the success or failure of any given entity. When the demand is there, the supply will respond. Businesses that fail simply do not have enough demand for their product. Walmart and McDonalds succeed due to having greater demand than their supply. They offer products in a price range and of the desired expectation to keep their businesses alive and thriving.
The question on the table is whether classical music has enough demand to generate the supply that is available. There are multitudes of examples of outstanding performing musicians who remain unemployed, performers with advanced degrees who have achieved a level of competence beyond that of most musicians. I recall a friend of mine, masters student, concerned that at a large university where he studied there were 18 graduate students in the field of horn performance. In addition there were 4 doctoral students. He mentioned that not only was the field saturated, the players were absolutely incredible. He then told me that any given year there are only about 2-4 openings for full-time employment in horn playing. He found himself working hard to develop skills that would likely rarely be used and certainly not in full-time employment. He is now in education.
This story is not unusual and there is merit to the argument that the more one develops his discipline, the better will be his teaching. Yet it also points to the truth that the supply of great musicians is greater than the demand. If cars suddenly no longer had to use tires and instead moved forward through light beams rather than rolling rubber tires on the pavement, stores selling tires would go out of business, having stock that is not usable.
Do colleges and universities offer a product that is no longer viable in the world? Are we teaching students to do something that is rapidly disappearing? If so, then we are being vastly irresponsible to our students. Yet we continue to do so with some arguments that at one time were valid. We may argue that students need to know foundations of music, or that we should only teach excellence, or we recognize the need for essential knowledge, or that there is a required canon of literature that educated musicians should know, but in the end those arguments are not strong enough to sustain the growing tide of music curriculum discontent. We cannot and should not continue to teach that which has almost no place in our modern culture. We must find a way to teach a broad range of skills that allows students the choice to find their way in the musical world.
We have to stop teaching one kind of music in one way that only allows students the ability to fit into one genre, one style, and one small culture. It is essential to rethink what we teach and how we teach in music that will enable students to be successful today. College teachers in universities are often guilty of two dramatic mistakes: 1) teaching the way they were taught and 2) teaching what they prefer. There was a time when this was an acceptable practice and for a world that more or less stays stagnate, these behaviors are ideal. A college teacher is (or maybe was) considered the expert in the field and has earned the right to pick the content of the class and teach it in any fashion he chooses. He has arrived at the peak of the discipline and therefore owns the discipline and all that goes with it. His training, his experience, his own remarkable abilities place him in the enviable position to do whatever he decides is the best for others. He is, after all, a college professor and all knowledge must come through him! How nice that would be.
But this idea defies reality, a reality where knowledge is available at the fingertips. The experts suddenly seem antiquated, limited, narrow, anachronisms in an age of omnipresent information. The experts know some things, in fact a lot of things and they are good at what they do, but the novices seem to know more (or think they do!), they at least suspect the experts may not be experts at all. The students may not have the skills of the experts, but they do recognize the world is not as it once was. It is absolutely frightening for us in the academic music field. Almost like the characters in Platos Cave who prefer to live in darkness, not wanting nor needing to know the truth of the world. And the truth may be lurking, or even shining right around the corner. Classical music is practically out of business. The demand is so small and is primarily found in the recording industry not in live concerts.
The supply far exceeds the demand, resulting in unemployed but incredible classical performing musicians. Connected to this reality comes the next realization, colleges and universities are teaching an old model, creating more great musicians for a world that does not demand it. The people, however, are unaware of this truth as long as they remain within the platonic walls of the academy. But a quick glance beyond reveals a world that is eye-opening. Classical music as a genre for live performance is dying a slow painful death. It desperately holds onto the ideal in select doses across the country most of which are in the academy.
In churches we can find live classical performances, in concert halls, in the public arena occasionally. But each year we read about another bankrupt orchestra, we watch our audiences diminishing, and we encounter fewer classical performances. The concept hemorrhages with the wound growing bigger all the time. People have little to no interest in the old ways. We must find something new before our store completely shuts its doors with excessive supply and no demand.
But what is new and how do we design it for the future generations of young musicians? Stay tuned!
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