I Owe Everything To My Talent, And The Thousands Of Music Lessons My Parents Could Afford
Many people ask me: ‘why are you a success?’ I am always ready to give an answer. It is because of how good I am, I say. That’s the only thing that matters: being good, having talent, and relying on a rock-solid financial and emotional support network maintained by the selfless commitment of others for the duration of your life.
It is all about my talent. Talent above all! Everything I have achieved I have earned entirely by myself and by my own merits, especially those that were nourished by the apparently limitless disposable income courtesy of my parents
Music lessons, instruments, maintenance costs, audition fees, competitions, recordings, photos, summer schools, travel costs- how did I pay for all this? As my nanny says, it’s just what happens for talented kids!
This is why I find it so distasteful to see professional musicians talking about money rather than their art. Since when did money ever come into the picture, for me? I’ve gone my entire life without ever being aware of the bottomless hole of expenditure my musical activity represented to all the adults around me every day. Why would you want to think about such things?
Did I depend on a government hand out? Did I get anything I did not deserve? No! A thousand times no! I earned it all myself, through my talent. I never asked for more than what I took for granted.
Some people ask me if I think it is possible for poor people to succeed based on their talent. Well, of course I do! That’s a perfectly sound theory. I met a poor person in boarding school once. He spent so long in the practice room that I couldn’t help but notice him. So you see, they really can achieve their wildest dreams.
That being said, not everyone has talent, and for those that don’t, they are probably not going to be able to get it. It all comes down to what you are born with: innate abilities, instinctive gifts, and all the social capital that comes with inherited wealth.
Some things simply cannot be taught.
Well said, Chad. And pianists can almost always find a piano to practice on – think of the poor violinists (and their parents) who may have to mortgage their whole lives to pay for a decent instrument or get an inferior one which makes it really hard to win auditions. I have an ex-student who is now a concertmaster in a European orchestra, and one of its soloists who won his audition with an antique Italian instrument (practically priceless) that he had had the good fortune to have lent to him for two years. Or course, he is a fabulous violinist but there are lots of fabulous violinists out there and I wonder if he would have won that audition without that instrument which he could never afford to buy. And don’t think just borrowing an instrument for an audition works either – it takes a while to get to know an instrument and discover it so you can get the most out of it. Ah, the lot of a violinist is not a happy one sometimes……
p.s. Can’t you get a photo of a real violinist? Your bow hold is better than his!
Nah! it’s a perfect illustration of the point.
You know, I thought of that after I posted it…
Smiley!
That looks like a photo for Allianz insurance to me!