Too Much Music
The Annual
Oversupply of Music
By Daniel Muniz
Music departments and schools have always been
amazing institutions and incredible anomalies. In a typical year,
there are approximately 7,000 music majors that graduate from more
than 500 accredited music schools. And in that same year, there are
only about 300 vacancies in decent paying jobs for orchestras.
And those 7,000 music major graduates must
compete with the unemployed graduates from the previous years as
well as with the experienced employed musicians who are already
looking for a different organization. As a result, it is not
uncommon for a single vacancy to generate more than 100 or 200
or more applicants vying for a single position.
The arithmetic is simple but appalling.
How can there be such a gigantic disparity
between each year’s music graduates and available opportunities?
Unfortunately, the old saying has been:
Music is a fine art and a lousy business...
Yes, it is a lousy business but music
departments do not actually go out of their way to explain the
frightful reality of available living-wage opportunities in
symphonies and orchestras. The demand for these learning
institutions is tremendous even though it is not in school’s best
interest to clarify how tough it will be to secure gainful
employment.
But these schools continue to perform a huge
disservice to their students when they don’t adequately inform their
pupils of the harsh reality that awaits them when they graduate.
Doing so would probably destroy the foundation of many music schools
which is often why they keep quiet on the subject.
So do universities and music schools want to continue to graduate
starving musicians?
And do they continually lure more students with dreams of
fanciful careers that simply do not exist?
The arithmetic shows that they do and that is totally
disingenuous and duplicitous. Other people would call it lying.
But here is what can be done to improve the integrity of the
situation.
Perhaps the best overall solution would be for
schools to downsize their degree plans while still encouraging double
majors.
They can even also promote music as a minor. Yes, music can coexist with
chemistry or engineering. And music can still be a part of an
accountant’s life or in mathematician’s future even though the
latter is what brings home the paycheck.
The music programs do not have to be entirely
devastated by such a divestiture but its future employment
opportunities have to be properly and sufficiently explained. That
is called honesty.
And in
this way, music schools will no longer engage in exploiting a
student body with overly ambitious and blatantly false career aspirations while still
providing them with a practical means to make a living.
Naturally, these learning institutions will
suffer from the decline in enrollment but it will place the proper
perspective on music as a future.
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