The Crisis of Classical Music in America: Lessons from a Life in the Education of Musicians

by Robert Freeman

The Crisis of Classical Music in America by Robert Freeman focuses on solutions for the oversupply of classically trained musicians in America, problem that grows ever more chronic as opportunities for classical musicians to gain full-time professional employment diminishes year upon year. An acute observer of the professional music scene, Freeman argues that music schools that train our future instrumentalists, composers, conductors, and singers need to equip their students with the communications and analytical skills they need to succeed in the rapidly changing music scene. This book maps a broad range of reforms required in the field of advanced music education and the organizations responsible for that education. Featuring a foreword by Leonard Slatkin, music director of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, The Crisis of Classical Music in America speaks to parents, prospective and current music students, music teachers and professors, department deans, university presidents and provosts, and even foundations and public organizations that fund such music programs. This book reaches out to all of these stakeholders and argues for meaningful change though wide-spread collaboration.

Genres: Music, Nonfiction

270 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2014

Reviews

[Austin Hood · Rating 4 out of 5]

Challenging, and certainly not what we want to hear as students of music, but Freeman confronts the reality of the current supply/demand relationship in American musicians. Few to none of my students will become professional musicians, and that is not why I should teach it, nor should I expect that of them. Were the making of a living or money the only reason music existed, it would be a hollow pursuit indeed.

[Aaron · Rating 3 out of 5]

Robert Freeman's book is half memoir (mostly of his 25-year stint as director of the Eastman School of Music) and half well-meaning advice, alternately addressed to students and parents, faculty, deans, provosts, and foundation administrators. Freeman's central argument is that the "crisis" of classical music is too much supply (narrowly, highly trained talent) and too little demand (audiences, financial support). This is nothing new, of course, but Freeman's long history - beginning with his grandfather's hard life as a musician - network, and access to power mean he has seen a lot and tried out various strategies.

Reading this book in 2024 as a professor of music, a few issues stand out: try as he might to stay abreast of the field, Freeman's outlook seems incredibly dated and narrowly focused on the Eastman bubble. He places a lot of emphasis on breadth and development of "new skills" (which even he admits are somewhat hard to identify) and has a strong distaste for research that isn't directly tied to classical music performance. But in the intervening years, all these issues have grown worse: more musicians are being produced, trained to an even higher/narrower standard, for more precarious employment. Research has also grown increasingly specialized and disconnected from the general public.

If you are planning on becoming Dean of an American music school, you will probably find this (and many of the books Freeman recommends) incredibly useful. But if you are an aspiring musician or parent to one, or heaven help you just an audience member interested in classical music, you might not walk away with much at all.

[Chris · Rating 2 out of 5]

Much of this book is "inside baseball" for music conservatories. If you have an interest in "Classical Music" and "College Education and Training", this is definitely worth reading. However I think the episodic nature of the book would make this not as accessible to a general audience. I graduated from Eastman towards the end of Dr. Freeman's tenure there. I can hear much of the "Philosophy of Eastman" in the writing here.

[Mills College Library]

780.71073 F8556 2014