Author: Ed Palanker
Date: 2012-02-18 03:31
I have to disagree with Joseph. It may be possible in some places to make a decent living teaching 50 or 60 students but you pretty much have to be able, and willing, to teach several instruments. How many teachers in a place like Baltimore, where i live, can do that? Maybe one or two. There was a time when freelances were able to make a decent living but most of that work dried up years ago. For a classicial clarinet player, not very much. I know many really good string players in our area that simply can't make a living playing these days if they're freelances. Most, if not all, have to do something else to make ends meet, they can't all have big teaching studios and it takes time to build up a studio. Freelances don't get any benifits, no pension, other than the unions pension if they can even get union jobs, no health care, no nothing. When I taught at Peabody I encouraged all my students to learn all the clarinets and if possible to learn different types of music. In many cases I woud encourage them to audiion for a military band, learn instrument repair, do a masters in theory or some other music subject they are interested in or do a minor in something else that they are interested in. The sad fact is that we are producing far to many good musicians than there are jobs, especially in the symphony field. There was a time that a good viola player could write their own ticket, now there are dozens of unemployed good viola players. For clarinet, it's 25 times worse, maybe 100. How many clarinet sympnony jobs open each year, five, six maybe if you're lucky. How many players are looking for a symphony job each year, 200, 300. I've been in the BSO for 49 years, we've had three openings in that much time, three openings in 49 years. Most players make a life time of their position. ESP
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The Clarinet BBoard
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