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Rings true to my life and my observations of others. 

Yes, the writer is a blogger whose blog entry was picked up and circulated until it landed in the Huffing and Puffington Post...

I think the level of playing continues to rise.  Do I have empirical data to support that?  No.  I think stringing together a living, as I do, with teaching and regional orchestras and gigs is more challenging now than it was 20 years ago.  Back then, the orchestras had more services and more concerts.  Each orchestra with which I am involved has shrunk -- the budget has shrunk, the amount of core positions has shrunk, the number of rehearsals per service has shrunk and the amount of concerts per season has shrunk.  Chamber music series, chopped.  Summer series, drastically reduced.  This again, I realize, is just my personal experience and cannot be considered a scientificically sound piece of data.

Back then, I can guarantee that phone calls came in on a weekly basis for weddings and other gigs. Now, the phone barely ever rings, and this is true not just for me.  (For you could be thinking, sure, for the bad musicians that is probably true.  Not that I'm a bad musician, but how do any of you know this and you might assume it if I say I'm not getting the calls I once got)  Every musician I know who is a freelancer has the exact same experience, and we all say that there is "no work now." Again, just our own observations, I realize.

I haven't raised my teaching rate in at least 5 years, and struggle to keep my studio full.  People are really thinking hard about things like, "What is the point of having her take cello lessons if she is going to be a hairdresser?"  I have more students than ever before who have a mom or dad without a job, I have adult students who have lost their jobs.  I live in a neighborhood with many abandoned houses and in a town that can't afford to pay its electric bill so streetlights are being rationed.

It isn't pretty out here, and for the first few years of the recession I wasn't badly touched by it.  Brides still used quartets, parents still provided lessons just for the sake of general education, and orchestras still tried despite sponsors pulling out and audiences shrinking.  But this thing is going on too long, and people cannot rally much more.  It really seems like everything is changing before my eyes.  But again, I can't prove that so perhaps I should not voice my opinion...

While I often think of how nice it would be, what a tremendous relief it would be, to have a regularly weekly paycheck -- I have found that the recession and the cultural decline have perhaps favored those of us who know how to hustle up an income.  I often wonder what I would do if someone pulled the rug out from under me, I know it would be a terrible situation.  At least as a freelancer, there is somewhat a sense of being captain of one's ship!

It just irks me that it seems no one is allowed to say anything unless they have proof that what they are saying is true.  But maybe I'm in an especially grouchy mood because I still haven't begun my income taxes and am continuing to procrastinate...

Very well said, david102a! "Like"

My main regional orchestra is union, but yes, many are not. Not that it helps a great deal to be union, but it did help at our last contract negotiation when they wanted to offer us "0" as in ZERO guaranteed services....the players committee and the union reps did negotiate what eventually became an acceptable offer. The other non-union orchestras realize the players won't come if their salary is not in line with others, so all the regional orchestras pay about the same.

My stand partner leaned over to me during a frustrating (as in, why are we playing this drivel) rehearsal recently and he pointed to himself and said, "Eastman." He pointed to me and said, "Juilliard." He pointed to the principal violist and said, "Curtis". He pointed to the next stand and said, "Oberlin." And so on and so forth...we all see the irony -- we never thought it would be like this when we went to our respective schools. But even after all the frustration, there is still nothing I'd rather do.

And yes, I like to think I do my part in the community where I live. I do the "meatball teaching'. (As in M*A*S*H*'s 'meatball surgery) I take any child who wants lessons. It is more rare to find ability than it is to not. But I can take kids with little ability and help them succeed at their school orchestra program, help them enjoy what they are doing and be confident. And I can take the more rare talented student and give him the best technique & repertoire I know how. It's not a bad life, really, but then -- I don't know anything different, do I?

But believe you me, I am completely bluntly honest with any student who decides they wish to become a musician and major in music performance. I never want it coming back to me that I created false expectations.

Which could lead to another aspect of the subject .... I did teach for a while at a private University that has some reputation in the areas of law, engineering, and even has a respectable basketball team. Needless to say, the music school is not of the highest calibre. But of course it needs students. So music majors are courted and accepted, and it really made me feel guilty when I taught there. What chance, really, did they have? We would work hard with them for four years, but the best at that school was like the worst or even the unadmissable at other finer schools. So, weren't we in effect creating false expectations? I know another teacher once told me that he considered the aspirations of a student to be none of his concern. I can't write it off so easily. I just eventually resigned my position because I didn't feel comfortable taking kids in basically so the program could have its requisite numbers. Grade school and high school are one thing -- college is completely another.