Music As A Self-Sustaining Profession

I've been thinking about this for a while, mostly since spring 2009 when I changed my major from music education to performance. (Well, technically, to a bachelor of arts.) I asked myself, 'what exactly can I ever do with this degree to live comfortably?' My conclusion was to teach at a collegiate level. Essentially, the main sustainable position toward which I can strive is teaching other kids like me, who have no idea what they want to do, but only know that they want to study music.
More recently, I've been look at this both ways- optimistically and pessimistically. The pessimist in me says, so then what's the point? How can we find a way to make music education relevant outside of our own field?
But the optimist in me says, hey, we can make our own field as relevant as we want. In fact, as musicians, it is our job to promote music every chance we get, as teachers, performers, and audience members. My undergrad's music department has a slogan which describes our music majors as "educators, entrepreneurs, and performers", saying that no student is just one. Educators teach, but also seize music business opportunities and perform at a high level. Performers have a high level of musicianship, but also know how to promote themselves and share their craft. What I've come to learn is music is all about making your own opportunities- collaborating to perform and teach. So is music self-sustaining? Sure...I think we can sustain it.

Vocal Master Class Infiltration, Round Two

The first week that I attended/accompanied in vocal master class, I posted on facebook that I "felt like an undercover agent". This week, the second time, the feeling continued, but was also being rivaled by another feeling. I'm started to get irritated by the "don't step on anyone's toes" attitude. Sure, it's nice to be supportive of each other, but sometimes, you just need to come out and say, "That wasn't good enough." I'm not about to fling praise at anyone if I'm not legitimately impressed with them.

I mean, if I, as a clarinetist who happens to accompany vocalists, can tell that your diction is mushy, your diction is mushy. I can buy "you've improved at [this], but you can still improve [this]", but to award praise where it isn't deserved is, to me, such an American thing. No one wants to hurt anyone's feelings. I've always gotten the impression that European(and especially Asian) musicians are so much better because they don't mess around with false hype or settle for sub-par performances. (Do correct me if I'm wrong.) Here in the US, we just want everyone to feel good. I'm sure this rant could extend to many aspects of our society, namely, education and health, but I'll spare you that.

Does anyone have experience studying in both the US and abroad who would care to weigh in on the issue? I know the standards are not pitiful everywhere in the US, but here, they seem to be lacking.

I'm Becoming a Creature of Musical Habit

A bit of background here- I finished my music undergrad (BA Music) in December and I'm now finally starting to look at grad schools, because there was no way I was going to prepare for/take the GREs, apply to grad schools, and prepare for auditions while simultaneously preparing a senior recital and completing my last semester of classes.

I've been establishing somewhat of a musical ritual, which has become somewhat of a musical rut. Every day, I start with 15-20 of Baermann (clarinet scales/technique stuff), followed by the new repertoire I've picked (Weber Concerto 2, Milhaud Duo Concertante), and then orchestral excerpts. Sometimes the rep and excerpts get switched, but essentially, the same stuff. For the first week or so, it was refreshing to hit some new music and to finally have a routine, but now I'm starting to get tired of it. What to do?

Well, tomorrow, I'm meeting with my clarinet prof for a lesson; making sure I'm doing okay with learning on my own and discussing more grad school audition rep. I'm hoping she'll pitch some more new stuff.

Also, today I inadvertently fixed my monotony- with the upcoming Bachchat (via twitter, on March 21), I've been wanting to record, or at least arrange/play, some Bach for my instrument, since it didn't really exist in his time. I've decided on French Suite No. 2, one of the pieces I'd studied last summer in piano lessons. That was the first time I'd really learned to deconstruct Baroque music in terms of voices, singing and playing different combinations of each to learn the piece.

So, we'll see how this goes for the next few weeks; I'm looking forward to getting some new information to apply to the last few weeks of working independently. I've reached a point where I can a good bit of  learning on my own, but I definitely need someone there to keep me in check in terms of technique and breaking bad habits.

Musical Picture of the Day

If I ever have an ice cream shop, I will supply my customers with magnetic poetry like Carmen & David's Creamery in Lancaster, PA. The boyfriend(the tenor), the violinist(from my trio), and I went there for ice cream before our music department's scholarship competition preliminary performances. It was a good night and I thought this 'poetic' creation kind of embodied being a musician trying to figure out where to go from here.