The Crisis of Classical Music in America

The Crisis of Classical Music in America by Robert Freeman focuses on solutions for the oversupply of classically trained musicians in America, problem that grows ever more chronic as opportunities for classical musicians to gain full-time professional employment diminishes year upon year. An acute observer of the professional music scene, Freeman argues that music schools that train our future instrumentalists, composers, conductors, and singers need to equip their students with the communications and analytical skills they need to succeed in the rapidly changing music scene. This book maps a broad range of reforms required in the field of advanced music education and the organizations responsible for that education.
Featuring a foreword by Leonard Slatkin, music director of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, The Crisis of Classical Music in America speaks to parents, prospective and current music students, music teachers and professors, department deans, university presidents and provosts, and even foundations and public organizations that fund such music programs. This book reaches out to all of these stakeholders and argues for meaningful change though wide-spread collaboration.

Robert Freeman is a musicologist, Steinway artist, and a professional musician. Having taught at Princeton and MIT, he served as director of Eastman School of Music at the University of Rochester for over two decades. He has also served as president of the New England Conservatory and dean of the College of Fine Arts at the University of Texas at Austin, where he is presently the Susan Menefee Ragan Regents Professor of Fine Arts.

Acknowledgments
Foreword by Leonard Slatkin
Preface
Chapter 1: The Winds of Change
Chapter 2: Where Did Musical Education Come From?
Chapter 3: My Education
Chapter 4: Advice for Parents: Should Your Child Play the Cello?
Chapter 5: Advice for College Music Students: What's Your Goal ... Really?
Chapter 6: Advice for Music Professors: Should All Your Students Aim for Carnegie Hall? Should They All Teach at Harvard?
Chapter 7: Advice for Music Deans: Building Education Programs Appropriate for the New Century
Chapter 8: Advice for Provosts and Presidents: Who Should Lead Your Music School and How Should that Person Lead?
Chapter 9: Advice for Foundation Directors and Civic Leaders: What Do We Do to Balance the Supply of and Demand for Professionally Trained Musicians?
Chapter 10: Epilogue
Appendix I: How to Evaluate Music Faculty
Appendix II: Convocation Address by Robert Freeman
Index
About the Author