Mozart in the Jungle is a cool book. Its a personal narrative written by oboist turned journalist Blair Tindall. Its full of sex, drugs, and classical music for sure as well as gossip and tons of talk about funding for the arts, which she advocates strongly and goes on at length about. As informative and exciting as Tindall's book is I have to mention Mozart in the Jungle the show on Amazon Prime. This is one of those rare instances where the tv show is better than the book. The book is great but after a while there's a sense of meandering gossip, not something I find fun. However I learned a lot from the book about what its like to be a classical musician. And its probably one of the best classical music narratives I can find at the library right now.
For me the most interesting aspect of the book is how she talks about originally being a classical purist, and trying so hard to join a symphony orchestra, it was her life's goal. And then after she failed some eighteen auditions she realizes that she has to turn to Broadway musicals and such to survive. In a way I can relate. I want to play jazz music but because not many young people like or are interested in jazz (unless they're university types) I have to settle in playing rock and roll to be in a gigging band. Somewhat similar.
So she realizes she has to lower her artistic integrity in order to make a paycheck. That sort of makes me realize that I have to do the same. I work a retail job but my passion is music and I pursue the music in all my free time but it isn't paying the bills yet. Interesting things to consider and think about.
Tindall goes on and on about funding for the arts and paychecks for these classical musicians. The thing that hit home with me was when she said there are thousands of musicians graduating from universities every year but the music scene only has some hundreds of jobs for them, and that most of them will have to work retail, office jobs, or menial labor in order to get by in addition with their music performances. All of this hit home really hard, especially when she said a little girl in a dress playing violin is cute but that a sixty year old female violinist with little to no health benefits is just scary. She tells it like it is.
If your son or daughter is accepted at a music conservatory is it truly because they are a Heifetz or is it because they need more students to fill their empty classrooms? It makes me think of myself. I once auditioned at a University in northern Wisconsin playing two trumpet etudes and I'd only been playing trumpet for about six months. After making a lot of mistakes through the pieces I was surprised that I had been accepted. Really makes you think about the classical tradition and the musical tradition in general.
In the past (1960s and before) Americans used to be musicians in their spare time. They might not have been as great as symphony orchestra musicians but they loved music and loved playing it. Fast forward to today and for lots of people classical music is a dead genre and they probably wouldn't want to invest time into learning an instrument. Music has been hit hard but Tindall ends the book on a positive note. Classical music performance attendance has gone up slightly within the last twenty years and good music will always find an audience. The future looks bright.
