Academy Rewards
Now and again I’m asked to sit on jury panels to help choose the lucky winners of whatever new music award, grant, or commission happens to be up for grabs. I really enjoy the process, but not because I get to play god or anything—although, admittedly, it’s nice to know that your opinions and artistic point of view actually count for something once in awhile. No, the real attraction is the opportunity to listen to my colleagues’ latest work and learn about new composers I’ve never heard of. Recently, I was on a preliminary screening panel, which means I got to hear a completly unfiltered cross-section of music. We’re talking about a huge amount of stuff. In a way, I feel privy to something along the lines of a crash course in the ever-changing landscape of new music circa 2007.
In hindsight I can tell you that the diversity of the music I heard was in no way reflected by the clone-like procession of curricula vitae that paraded under my gaze. The applicants were college professors or doctoral candidates, with very few exceptions. With so many finding solace in the shadow of the ivory tower, maybe the days of forging a decent career as a composer outside the academy are numbered.
Once upon a time, composers allergic to mainstream and hardcore academia had to seek sanctuary at places like Mills College, Cal Arts, and Wesleyan. This isn’t the case any longer. What was once called—ugh, I’m about to type it—Downtown is now institutionalized by places like Princeton, Yale, etc. Nowadays, the only composers turned off by the academic establishment are those averse to writing dissertations. It’s not a matter of aesthetics or artistic differences anymore, it just boils down to laziness. Judging by the young composers who regularly throw their hats into the awards and commissioning arena, it seems pretty anachronistic, if not pointless, to be a dropout. For the most part, young composers are wallowing in their free tuition and livable stipends while writing extraordinarily impractical orchestral pieces. Who can blame them?