Klarinet Archive - Posting 000667.txt from 1998/03

From: "Justin Wood" <olio555@-----.com>
Subj: Re: Curtis & Bill Gates (or . . . get the other degree too)
Date: Wed, 11 Mar 1998 12:41:02 -0500

Yeah--maybe I should switch back to French Horn...
58% played clarinet--WOW

Justin Wood
-----Original Message-----
From: Kevin Fay <kevinfay@-----.com>
Date: Tuesday, March 10, 1998 6:30 PM
Subject: Re: Curtis & Bill Gates (or . . . get the other degree too)

>Funny you should ask. The answer: none that I know of.
>
>Allow me to elaborate. Aside from being a highly mediocre clarinet
>player, I am a corporate attorney at . . . you guessed it, Microsoft.
>As far as I know, there are no Curtis grads here. You would not believe
>the number of musicians that are here, however. Microsoft has its own
>choir, orchestra and wind ensemble (all of which are pretty standard
>community-band quality).
>
>There is another subset of musicians here, though, at a high
>professional level--for example, the second and third on-call trumpet
>players w/ the Seattle Symphony both are Microsofties. (And both make a
>whole pile more money than the full-time symphony gig).
>
>Two points in this rambling. First, you should absolutely take the
>"other" program in your double major into account. Most musicians don't
>play their horns for a living--they have to teach, or wait tables, or
>write contracts. Other folks I know who play entirely for their living
>have anything but an affluent life style. Face it--there are only 500
>or so full-time orchestra gigs in the U.S., and many schools besides
>Eastman and Julliard are cranking out graduates trying to fill them. Do
>the math.
>
>Second, this lack of professional opportunity is no reason to quit
>playing. In the orchestra and wind ensemble I regularly play with,
>virtually every musician has a performance degree (or the equivalent
>amount of performance experience from college). Several work at
>Microsoft. Others are architects, college professors (not music),
>physicians and assorted other under-achievers. Remember high school,
>when it seemed like all the smart kids were in band? They were.
>
>I was an editor of the law review my last year of law school. As an
>informal poll of the law review members, I asked each of them if they
>had played an instrment. Most had--but FIFTY-EIGHT PERCENT of the law
>review editorial board had played clarinet at one time or another.
>
>'Nuff said.
>
>kjf
>
>
>----Original Message Follows----
>From: DGross1226 <DGross1226@-----.com>
>Date: Tue, 10 Mar 1998 01:10:52 EST
>To: klarinet@-----.us
>Subject: Curtis & Bill Gates
>Reply-To: klarinet@-----.us
>
>In a message dated 98-03-09 11:12:36 EST, you write:
>
><< Curtis is one of the ultimate schools - IF you make it. >>
>
>It seems we've forgotten the original question about a dual major. Does
>anyone know how many Curtis graduates are currently working for
>Microsoft?
>
>Don Gross
>La Canada, California
>
>
>
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