Posted by Anthony on July 15, 2002 at 20:58:30:
In Reply to: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: John Williams Tuba Concerto posted by Tom C. on July 15, 2002 at 19:54:02:
Good post! My problem used to be the opposite of yours. I went to a school with a well known studio taught by a well known tuba professor, hoping to eventually be immersed in and educated about classical music. Well, the common attitude at this school(propogated mostly by the all-wind-players faculty) was that orchestras are obsolete, and bands are the wave of the future. Teachers with doctorates from eastman would make ignorant comments like "Orchestras sound horrible because strings can't play in tune", etc. The University has one string faculty who teaches all of the string studios, and had a good orchestra director who has since left to persue more worthwhile ventures. The university orchestra was the butt of many jokes, and the community orchestra was actually quite good, considering the community it was in. Other members of the studio would say "Why on earth would you want to play in an orchestra? What an embarassment." I think this is a good example of why the school IS as important as the person teaching there.
I don't personally like concert bands, but I respect any person's self-discovered preferences. I also have a lot of respect for band directors and music educators, who have to put up with a lot of sh*t(not being considered "real" musicians, academic politics, etc) so that they can teach music to future generations. It really bothers me that so many people harp on their fellow musicians the way they do... as if this industry isn't difficult enough to begin with.
Anthony