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Richard Jernigan -> RE: John Mclaughlin on the state of music arts today (Nov. 11 2014 3:08:55)
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Night before last I went to the most impressive guitar concert I have been to since Tomatito and his troupe played Austin.
It was a solo concert by Anton Baranov, this year's winner of the Guitar Foundation of America classical contest. Baranov's playing was richly expressive and staggeringly virtuosic. His youthful modest enthusiasm was charming as he gave a brief introduction to each piece. His last piece was the most virtuosic guitar playing I have ever heard or seen, classical or flamenco.
As I walked out after the concert, I thought, "Damn near the whole audience are old farts like me. Who is going to support this stuff when we are gone?"
But as I drove home I was encouraged thinking about what the Austin Classical Guitar Society has done. The Society has developed a curriculum for guitar in secondary schools, and trained high school teachers to implement it. In Austin alone there are over 3000 students enrolled in guitar classes in high school, junior high school, even juvenile justice lockdown facilities. The program has spread across the USA, Central and South America. Before Baranov's concert the Society's select youth orchestra played excerpts from a film score recently composed for guitar quartet and 'cello. The playing was technically solid and admirably expressive.
It was the public schools of Oklahoma and Maryland which introduced me to my lifelong love of music and playing. If the programs are provided in the schools, the students will sign up in droves, as shown by the Austin Classical Guitar Society program.
The schools may not teach your favorite genre, but once given a musical foundation, young people can find their way on their own. My loves of flamenco and jazz were developed outside any formal structure.
My son was in the school band. He has never been a full time musician, but at age 44 he has always had some kind of regular gig in the very active live music scene in Austin, in addition to his day job in the tech world.
When we visited my ex-wife's cousins in Norway 30 years ago, we met two who were teachers. One was the principal of a high school, his wife was a high school teacher. They lived quite well. I assumed there was family money involved. My wife informed me that they lived entirely on their salaries. Each made at least as much as equally experienced engineer in the USA.
I was discussing the relative merits of the Norwegian and American systems with another cousin, older and wealthier. He said, "I hear that in America teachers are paid quite poorly. Why is that? What could be more important than educating the children?"
I live in the district of one of the two or three most prestigious public high schools in Austin. According to some ranking scheme it is supposed to be one of the top 100 in the USA. I pay thousands of bucks per year in school taxes, and I don't have any kids or grandkids in school. But being in this school district is the main reason the price of houses here has risen faster than even the booming Austin housing market. So far, the increase in the price of my house has exceeded the total I have paid in school taxes.
Yet in Texas, as in other states, funding for education is slashed, and people bitch about the schools.
RNJ
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