[sphinx]

Curious. America's schools of music have always been full of young people, most of whom are hopeful would-be professional musicians, but most of whom also realize the odds are greatly against them ever making a living in performance. At some point, they face the grim decision of either switching majors or settling for being a middle school music teacher and maybe giving lessons on the side. Church gigs were a major tranche of real, paying jobs in the field. I always assumed that most church organists were converted pianists who wanted to stay in music performance.

What has changed now? Are incumbents staying on longer than they used to, thus depriving newcomers of opportunities? Has music school enrollment declined precipitously? The general inflation in college tuition costs is turning colleges more and more into vocational education. Music could be among the traditional disciplines affected.

[Chickensoup]

Americans youth do not, for the most part, train for classical music.

We have very few musicians, by percent, than we did 100 years ago. If you subtract the guitar and drums from the count.

The only place where classical music and musicians really thrive and are sought out is Asia.

As one famed musician said: Thank God for the Asians, otherwise the Western music tradition would die out.

The lights are going out quickly.