- I want to talk about an experience
I had about two years ago,
I was able to help design and lead a conference of
people who lead America's conservatories.
And there were about 20 of these conservatory leaders.
And there were the people who run the
art service organizations, ASL chamber music,
America and other art forms, and some of the funders.
And the question was, what are we training people for
to become 21st century artists.
And one very clear, interesting conclusion arose,
which was that the technical training of artists
is probably being attained at a higher level today
than has ever happened in human history.
So they finally got this part of
the training of artists together,
that technical part, we got it nailed.
The skill is such that it is excellent across many, many
institutions in America. People are coming out ready
to be productive artists, producers
unlike any time in history.
And just as we got that together,
they had to admit there is the emergence of this second
group of skills that they can't name
that isn't as well articulated.
That is this sort of amorphous bag of additional skills that
are required in order to have a good fulfilling,
productive life as a 21st century musician.
And the different schools are grappling
with this additional set of skills in many ways.
They're having to admit that
they are actually now as important as the technical skills,
even though we don't have as good a handle on them.
And some of the additional skills in this amorphous bag
are things like entrepreneurial skills, skills of education,
skills of ambassadorship and advocacy,
skills, creative skills of ways to draw people in ways
to keep yourself creatively engaged, self assessment skills.
And the musical training hasn't figured out
how to fully embrace this.
And indeed, there's some tension between the two.
Because as these conservatory leaders were saying,
hey, wait a minute, you're saying we should take time away
from practice and orchestral experience
in order to develop skills in this extra area?
And nobody has the answer to that now,
except what I know is that unless musicians begin to grapple
with this additional set of skills that is required,
they're gonna start to lead lives that
are guaranteed to be less satisfying /and less,
both creatively and financially productive
than they need to be in the 21st century.