A professor back in college always exhorted his students never to worry about getting into the best schools, but instead seek out the best teachers, wherever they may be found. Such advice is sound for any subject, but particularly so for music, where the relationship between teacher and student is critical, and is fostered in a one-on-one setting.
Although schools such as Juilliard, Eastman and Indiana, to name but a few, continue to turn out a veritable army of geniuses, brilliant performers can emerge from all sorts of backgrounds. It is worth bearing in mind that formal training in music, particularly at the higher levels, has never been fully the norm. A glance at music history reveals that most of the great composers and performers, indeed, sought out the best teachers rather than simply a diploma.
And lest anyone assume that a life of solitary study is only for "geeks," or "nerds," we would do well to remember that even such figures as Justin Timberlake and gymnast Mary Lou Retton, among others, have followed unconventional educational paths, yet reaped great rewards. Today, many state universities maintain virtual schools to meet the needs of budding musicians, athletes, dancers and performers. Graduates of these institutions are actively recruited by colleges and professional school.
A look at the newest members of the St. Louis Symphony offers some insights into the training and preparation of musicians. Some interesting patterns emerge.
Although the teacher is ultimately the center of education for music students, it is undeniable that certain institutions act as magnets to attract effective teachers and pupils. Three of the four new members of the SLSO, for example, all received a portion of their education at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia: Second Associate Concertmaster Celeste Golden Boyer, Principal Bassoon Andrew Cuneo and Acting Associate Concertmaster Ellen dePasquale. Curtis is an institution that provides full scholarships to all its students and is known for its nurturance of prodigies. Like the Juilliard School, admissions standards are among the most rigid of any institutions of higher learning, exceeding those of Ivy League schools.
Two of the new members, First Violin Xiaoxiao Qiang and Andrew Cuneo, studied at the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University, an institution that continually grows in prestige, and which also shares with Curtis and Juilliard a highly competitive admissions process. Most professional music schools have a policy of admitting only enough instrumentalists to fill the sections of two orchestras.
Reflecting the current reality of higher education, three of the four new members of the SLSO are women. Women now occupy the majority in nearly all institutions of higher learning in the U.S., and their prominence will be increasingly visible. Keep in mind also that the St. Louis Symphony, like most major symphony orchestras, employs a system of "blind" auditions, in which applicants audition behind a screen so as not to reveal their race or gender (some orchestras even have applicants walk on carpet as they enter so that listeners will not attempt to guess gender from the sounds their shoes make!). This means that hiring by audition is based on competency, not credentials on paper or test scores. Therein may lie a lesson for our entire educational system.
It is interesting to note the relationship between musicians and their teacher is very similar to that between many athletes and their coaches, in particular swimmers, skaters, gymnasts and practitioners of somewhat "solitary" sports. (Several years ago, while traveling in Mexico, I noticed that the biographies of cliff divers were careful to list the "teachers"—not coaches—under whom the divers had "studied," just as in music.) Perhaps over time we can gain additional insights into the entire education process and how it is delivered to students by studying methods of professional preparation.
Returning to our original premise, it is important to remember that the selection of a school is definitely important, but only as a means of connecting students to the best teachers, resources and opportunities. For a star like Christine Brewer, a St. Louis area community college and a rural liberal arts college provided the springboard to an international career. Dorothy Delay, one of the greatest violin teachers who ever lived, received her start in rural Kansas, and no less a genius than George Gershwin received actually very little formal education, relying on raw experience and the proverbial "hard knocks."
