Orchestral percussionists-the next generation

[rcahn]

As a member of the Symphonic Committee of the Percussive Arts Society, I have a wonderful group of colleagues/performers/teachers who share my love of orchestral percussion, but we all lament that it is growing even more difficult to nurture young percussionists who are interested in our art. Our committee will present a Panel Discussion, headed by Michael Rosen (Oberlin College), dealing with career opportunities in orchestral percussion at the PASIC conference at the end of October. We will also have a variety of masterclasses, workshops and even hands on labs for active participation. We even have a Mock Orchestral audition-please send your students.

I am not sure of all the reasons for the decline on students with "orchestral passion and skills. I hope that some of my ideas below will spark your input and responses:
1. Music Education in the schools is focused on "doing" and not listening to major works. Where have all the "music appreciation classes" that share major works even with the "non-music" focused child gone?
2. Many of my generation of symphonic players studied with full time orchestra players when we were in high school. It seems that few major symphony players have time to teach high school students- seasons have certainly gotten longer since the 60's.
3. What is the "skill model" really needed by orchestral percussionists today? In my experience this has changed and expanded with the demands of pops concerts, 20 th century music and world music influences.
4. How should we be training our students to use our wonderful percussion instruments to reach out to the community and approach "new listeners" for our orchestras.
All your thoughts and comments are most appreciated.
Ruth Cahn

[LJFried]

The truth is that so many people currently teaching percussion at the college level have little or no real professional orchestral experience themselves. I'm not talking about conservatories in major cities but rather the dozens (hundreds?) of college and university music programs nationwide. So many of these teachers have been full time students - bachelors, masters, DMA - then go straight into teaching. These type of schools want to hire people with DMAs so it's a revolving door.

[perclee]

Hi Ruth,
Funny you should mention the 'next generation' of orchestral percussionists. I left Eastman 2 years ago and I'll be starting in September as the newest member of the Boston Symphony Orchestra percussion section.

You brought up a lot of great points for discussion but I wanted to comment on one or two of them. First of all, I applaud the efforts of the Percussive Arts Society's Symphonic Committee for their work on making orchestral percussion a more active part of PAS and the percussion world. I hope to be involved in these activities myself soon. I've wondered for a long time why orchestral percussionists are not a more active part of PAS.

Secondly, I'm not sure I see a lack of students interested in orchestral percussion. (Although I certainly don't have the same scope of experience as yourself.) The BSO received 247 resumes for the audition last Spring! The bigger problem I see is a lack of qualified musicians auditioning for jobs in orchestral percussion.

Music schools have a funny way of preparing us for certain things in the music world while neglecting to make us aware of others. My personal experience was that I came out of Eastman feeling like a decent musician but having no idea how to take auditions. I was getting passed over at auditions for years by guys who were better at auditioning than myself. This sort of touches on the 'skill set' for orchestral percussionist that you brought up. The end result of the current audition process in my opinion is that orchestras hire players with great audition skills who may not always possess best musical instincts or ensemble skills.

How do we go about addressing this? Sounds like a job for the Symphonic Committee! I've thought a lot about this myself but I think it starts with teaching students to be great all around musicians as well as auditioners. I suppose that's easier said than done.

I'm probably opening up a whole other can of worms here! Just food for thought.
-Lee Vinson

[georgenickson]

I am a student at NEC, studying with Will Hudgins. Congrats Lee! I'm sure we will meet soon.
Every year at NEC and many other schools over 60 students auditioning for acceptance are fighting over 1-4 openings in the studio. The level of playing is always very high and the decisions are tough. NEC is notoriously orchestral percussion studios. Most here aren't playing marimba solos and xylophone rags, we are shedding excerpts. Therefore, I don't see this as being a lack young people who are interested in orchestral playing.
Once we finish NEC we fight amongst 200-300 applicants hoping for a job. Of that number it is impossible to deny that at least 30-50 of them are playing at a level worthy of any world class orchestra. The level of playing is so high that many will make finals in cleveland, only to be cut in prelims at nashville.
How do we need more players to fill 5-6 openings each year when there are hundreds in the hunt already?

George Nickson

[CMcNutt]

Ruth (and everyone participating in this discussion):



Thanks for putting these questions and responses out there into the field. These are questions not easily answered, so the more dialogue there is, the better.



To start with Ruth’s queries:



1. I think the loss of the Music Appreciation class is due to budget constraints, nothing else. It has always been a popular class, probably because you sat and listened to music much of the time, and in many cases it was an easy A. However, the effect of this loss is felt primarily in the diminishing size of audiences, not as much in the arena of career driven percussionists.



2. The inability of symphony percussionists to find time to teach high school students can be traced to the efforts to make symphony orchestras a full time job. The great orchestras we think of (Szell’s Cleveland, Reiner’s Chicago, for example) didn’t have the time commitment that those orchestras require today. Thus the members taught more, drove a delivery truck, or mowed lawns to make ends meet. Today, for the big orchestras at least, that need of extra income isn’t there. Having said that, it must be note that (a) there a many highly qualified musicians who are not in 52 week orchestras who might be available to teach – (b) those percussionists in full time jobs by and large to make a good chunk of time available for teaching, probably more than they have to, so they should be commended for that. Additionally, I know that some of these full time percussionists will teach high schoolers, although it is usually by audition, to show that they are qualified and motivated.



3 and 4. I think these 2 points cut to the heart of the discussion, which is are there enough percussionists out there, enough qualified ones, and if they are not entirely qualified for one area, what do we do with them?



As George pointed out, there are more than enough people applying for openings in colleges. And while Lee mentioned that only some of the players applying for performing positions are truly qualified to navigate the audition process, what remains is a large volume of percussionists who are nonetheless very skilled musicians, and for whatever reason may not be ideally suited for the audition process. The focus on that process is clearly necessary for some students, but at some point the teacher has to realize that some students may be better suited to a slightly different track. Keep in mind we can’t blame the orchestral percussionist for teaching what they know best. What I fear happens too often is a student enters college with the best intentions of becoming an orchestral percussionist. At the end of the process though, the student might be not quite talented enough, or not have enough interest in continually shedding Scheherazade, Sorcerer’s Apprentice, and the Liszt Piano Concerto triangle part. However, the skill set they graduate with doesn’t leave them with enough to go in a significantly different direction. So they continue to take auditions. On the opposite end, one may study with a well rounded-percussionist, but the teacher may lack the experience in the audition trenches to really prepare the students properly for the audition process.



So what needs to happen? It seems that there are more than enough students interested in percussion, based on the number of applications. There also appears to be enough interest at the audition level, although not everyone may be completely qualified. There is a lack of music education for those not majoring in music. There are more and more avenues of percussion styles that we are expected to be qualified to do. Perhaps a more thorough evaluation during the education process, to see what young percussionists are best suited to do? Maybe put a greater emphasis early on in college towards exposing students to the various aspects of percussion, so they can see what peaks their interest the most? Make them fluent in popular music styles, especially for Pops style concerts. Finally, it is clear that skills beyond performing are becoming requisite. Teaching the art of performing for children, for therapeutic purposes, lecturing (as part of a performance), the business of music, all are things that will help keep percussionists focused, interested, and involved in our art.



Thanks for a good discussion,



Craig McNutt

[pauker]

Hey Ruth,

I have a couple of questions for you, from your original post. First of all, could you tell me who all comprises this current PAS Symphonic Committee? And, just out of curiosity, what kind of issues has this committee been dealing with recently?

Thanks in advance.

George Brown
Utah Symphony

[JulietteKlonk]

"
The truth is that so many people currently teaching percussion at the college level have little or no real professional orchestral experience themselves. I'm not talking about conservatories in major cities but rather the dozens (hundreds?) of college and university music programs nationwide. So many of these teachers have been full time students - bachelors, masters, DMA - then go straight into teaching. These type of schools want to hire people with DMAs so it's a revolving door."

You made some good points there.

[tenniscrazy2]

I think one of the main reasons that younger kids these days aren't very interested in orchestral percussion is because they are more into drum set and rock music, rather than classical. I'm 14 years old, and there's nothing in the world I love more than orchestral percussion, but it's difficult to find kids my age who are passionate about orchestral percussion nowadays, rather than kids who only started playing percussion in their school band because it's similar to playing drum set, and aren't really interested in concert percussion whatsoever.