The death of instrumental music at U. Washington?

[TexTuba]

Some of y'all make it seem like he's going to end up on the streets!

There are FAR more people who have it worse than a man (and he IS just a man when you put the horn down) who lost his PART-TIME gig. The only difference between THIS adjunct teacher and all of the other ones who lose/lost their jobs this year is the last name.

[Todd S. Malicoate]

I never saw this situation as 'poor old Allen', Ralph. Rather, I looked at how secure a job was for a person of his stature and acclaim 50 years ago vs. now. Now, talent and global-appeal don't seem to be leverage enough to keep even a part-time job anymore.

They never were.

How safe will anyone's job be and how will that look to prospective students with great talent (even genius status) in a field of study, if all that matters is money.

Money has to matter in this case. The school has a budget and it was slashed. Should they have cut one of the tenured positions instead? Just because one of those tenured teachers wasn't a "genius"?

Someone here said it before...better to go into business for yourself than be at the mercy of a tyrranical corporation, school system, etc.

Good luck finding a job that pays benefits so that you can be there 1/2 the time to teach trumpet to a few students.

[Chriss2760]

In my fairly small (80k or so pop.) town, two of our "best and brightest" young players went off to Ohio State (yeah) and majored in music performance. For the last five years the tuba player has been driving a Pepsi truck, and the bone player is an assistant manager for Bi-mart.
I don't like it, but that is the reality.
So, I haven't encouraged my tuba-ist daughter to attempt making a living at it. Although she has pretty much taken over one of my regular playing gigs, it would seem, at this point in time, that playing the tuba is a lot better avocation than a profession.