Quietly Going About My Business

I suppose that's what the majority of musicians have been doing for centuries: going about the business of practicing, writing, arranging, and teaching during times of insecurity, strife, and war. It seems that musicians of my generation (born in the 1950s and 1960s and reaching retirement age in the second and third decades of the twenty-first century) have had the best of all possible musical worlds.

As long as it lasts, we are able to get our hands on far more music than any of us can ever play or even listen to in a single lifetime.

In 2007 Norman Lebrecht declared classical music dead, and he has been proven wrong again and again. In order to keep my sanity I have to remind myself that the current state of many governments in the world (especially what is happening to government in America) can't stop us from doing what we do. It can stop us from getting decent medical care, and it can stop us from being able to afford the basic necessities of life. It can call on us to go out of our way to protect and advocate for colleagues and students who might be in vulnerable positions. We can try to give everybody we know a safe "home" in music, at least while we are playing together.

The quality of music making outside of the major population centers in America has skyrocketed in recent years, as has the quality of music making in what seems like every corner of the globe (I know the world is round, and that globes don't have corners).

Thanks to social media we are able to see and hear how engaged in music people of all ages are. But thanks to the changes that have happened in social media, it is not a comfortable place for me to "play" anymore, and most certainly not a way to find out what is happening in the community where I live. Hearing about local events after they have happened is no fun. What once felt like a "town square" turned into a parade of ads--the computer-based equivalent of those pages of ads that used to be inserted in the local paper, when we had a truly local paper.

As a result of taking the "easy" path to having social interactions, many of us have forgotten how to be social in real time. If we are to survive as musicians and as human beings we need to learn (or relearn) how to take the time to get to know the people who live in our communities, and have real correspondences with people we know who live in other communities.

After being dependent for so many years on the soma of social media apps for an easy "fix" of a fleeting sense of connection, I find that it is really hard to find and maintain meaningful relationships. It was really hard before social media. I remember. As I recall it required a lot of time, a lot of risk taking, and it often involved making and experiencing social faux pas.

Stephen Sondheim explained it so well in Company (1970). "Being Alive" is meant to address the need for meaningful romantic relationships. Now in 2025 I find that the song applies just as well to the need for real friendships as it does to romantic relationships.