Freeman - The crisis of classical music in America: lessons from a life in the education of musicians

The Crisis of
Classical Music in America

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Freeman, Robert.

The crisis of classical music in America : lessons from a life in the education of musicians / Robert Freeman.

pages cm

Includes index.

ISBN 978-1-4422-3301-0 (hardcover : alk. paper) -- ISBN 978-1-4422-3302-7 (pbk. : alk. paper) -- ISBN 978-1-4422-3303-4 (ebook)

1. Music--Instruction and study--United States. 2. Music in universities and colleges--United States. I. Title.

MT3.U5F74 2014

780.71'073--dc23

2014009714

TM The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992.

Printed in the United States of America

To Carol, with whom I have shared the love of 16 wonderful dogs:

Pierre Barrington, Annie Scio, Oliver Clinton, Lacy Louise, Rose, Billie

American dogs (pets of mixed heritage)

Good Time Charlie IX, Mikey, Chloe, Chaco, Tess, Chipps, Rusty, Jackson, H. Maude, Calvin,

rescue golden retrievers.

And more yet to come!

It is a special pleasure to thank my dear wife, Carol, for her strong support over the years in the preparation of this book. The most important contributors to my early education, in addition to my parents, have been my principal music teachers: pianists Marjorie Truelove MacKown, Marjorie Church Cherkassky, Gregory Tucker, Artur Balsam, and Rudolf Serkin; oboist Fernand Gillet; musicologists John Ward, Oliver Strunk, and Arthur Mendel; and Robert L. Sproull, seventh president of the University of Rochester.

I am indebted to many discussions on musics future with innumerable students whom I have had the privilege of mentoring at Princeton, MIT, Eastman, the New England Conservatory, and the University of Texas at Austin, and I have profited greatly from these conservations with young people. It is my hope that further such discussions will be facilitated in the years ahead through the appearance of this book, helping toward the broader societal impact of the art we all care so much about.

Though errors found in the text are the result of careless proofreading of mine, I am very appreciative of the help of James A. Winn and Thomas Mowrey, friends of many years standing, for their help in reviewing the text. I am deeply grateful, finally, for the help of my editor, Bennett Graff. No one could have been more supportive, good-humored, and knowledgeable than he.

I know of no person better suited to report on the state of musical education and to influence its development than Robert Freeman. Since 1972, as head of three superb American institutions of higher education in music, he has helped produce a generation of musicians who see beyond their music stands and seek to use their talent to create a more harmonious world. More than a quarter century ago, Dr. Freeman began to address the educational issues that have today reached nothing less than crisis proportions, from the disappearance of music education in the public schools to the glut of single-minded musicians who have learned to excel at competitions rather than at music making. I am struck by the consistency of his message over that period of time. He continues to remind us of the need for general music education in the public schoolsnot to create potential professional musicians but to mold better human beings. He still calls for a more varied curriculum in conservatories, to create more broadly educated artists. And he still stresses the need to assess the potential of the individual music student early on, in order to guide the student to an appropriate, attainable, satisfying career in or out of music. As he has always done, Dr. Freeman challenges us to develop a more balanced and realistic approach to the way music is taught, particularly at the highest levels of academia.

Rather than becoming a professional performer like his father and grandfather before him, Robert Freeman earned degrees in music from Harvard and Princeton. After serving on the music faculties of Princeton and MIT, he was named director of the renowned Eastman School of Music, which he led for twenty-four years. In 1996 he took the helm of the equally celebrated New England Conservatory of Music, and in 1999 moved to the University of Texas at Austin as dean of that institutions College of Fine Arts.

Robert Freemans own career is the best proof of the sagacity of this book. Briefly stated, there are many ways to make a significant contribution in music besides being a Heifetz, a Horowitz, or a Caruso. While it is laudable to dream of a career as a renowned soloist performing to standing-room audiences in the great halls of the world, its crucial to recognize that comparatively few musicians ever become so much as a member of an orchestra, fewer still make a living in chamber music, and an infinitesimally small number become that celebrated soloist of legend. Yet thousands upon thousands of other valuable opportunities in music await the student who would set his or her sights instead on a career as composer, coach, or critic, as publisher, producer, teacher, fund-raiser, or executive.

Would you like a quick practical example of the point? Okay: a hundred musicians are on the payroll of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, while a hundred and thirty administrators draw a weekly check from the BSO. A great many of the BSO administrative team bring much-valued insight to their jobs from having been serious students of music.

Further, even the student who ultimately pursues a career outside of music can take great satisfaction, and make great contributions as a knowledgeable amateur musician. Im particularly intrigued that a person who sets the agenda for training musicians at the highest level admires the contribution of Gilbert Kaplan as an accomplished avocational conductor and scholar. While some decry the idea of a man of business conducting Mahlers Resurrection Symphony at Carnegie Hall, Dr. Freeman believes Maestro Kaplan serves to inspire. Isnt his amateurs enthusiasm what music used to be about?

Robert Freeman had the great advantage of having parents who clearly understood the music business, and who directed him early toward a rounded liberal arts and musical education. I, too, grew up in a home with professional musicians, and I continue to marvel at the wisdom and support they showed at every step of my education. It might easily have been otherwise, with very different results. The first and perhaps best decision my parents made was to send me to a series of schools that had a profound sense of the importance of musical education. Would it surprise you to know that Im speaking of the Los Angeles public schools? I am. From 1950 to 1962, I did not attend a single private school. I didnt have to. Music was part of the curriculum in my grade school. My junior high had an orchestra and a band. Los Angeles High School had two bands, an orchestra, two choruses, and a composer-in-residence. Public schools all!