Klarinet Archive - Posting 000187.txt from 2001/03

From: Mark Thiel <thielm@-----.com>
Subj: [kl] Careers
Date: Wed, 7 Mar 2001 17:11:12 -0500

Rhea Jacobs wrote:
. . .
>
>
> My real regret, though, was that in college I was forced to give up
the
>clarinet for lack of a PLACE to practice. The college was in all other
>respects ideal for me, but space was at a minimum, and only music
majors
>could get a practice room key. Practicing in the dorms was not an
option --
>it was impossible to do so without disturbing others.
>
How awful!

> . . .

> What's my point? If all things are equal in choosing your college,
try to
>find one where you won't have to give up your instrument. I think
you'll be
>happier if you can continue playing, and you'd be surprised the number
of
>opportunities there are in most places for competent amateurs.

Yep, environment, extracurricular activities, etc. are not to be
overlooked
in choosing a school. Through sheer dumb good luck, and not from any
planning on my part (and I guess this should be a lesson to me: when I'm

wondering what ARE my kids thinking, I should think back to what WAS
I thinking back when I was their age) I went to Virginia Tech as an
undergraduate back when the music department was just starting
(1967). I was in on the ground floor of an orchestra that was really
pretty terrible, but the point is that it was an orchestra with
standards
low enough so that
I managed to get a clarinet chair. So my needs were
better served by going to an engineering school that was just beginning
to discover the arts than they would have been going to a strong
music school where dillettantes of limited ability would be watching
from the outside.

Mark Thiel

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