🙌 Bravo Twoset Violin!!! 👏👏👏👏 I'm so proud of you for speaking out about this. It takes a lot of courage, but definitely important for our profession to start being more transparent about where corruption, maltreatment, and misconduct takes place, and in what ways (big or small).
If the classical music profession values cultural integrity so much, then why are we allowing certain people in power to overstep boundaries, divide us through exclusivity (rather than unify through inclusivity), and abuse or test their power through manipulation and influence? Our profession was meant to bring people together, to impact the public through our expression, and instill the value and necessity of the arts within culture, education, and society. If we are such an important backbone to society and want to preserve our art, then why do we create more ill-intent and alienation among ourselves? ......whether that's political corruption in our profession, misconduct, maltreatment, discriminating by gender, age, nationality/diversity (e.g. some orchestras favor solely international applicants, and exclude residents or local applicants; where others clearly lack diversity in a questionable way), etc., even though it may be written in fine print. And most importantly, the fact that we do not provide educational support in the areas of workplace/institutional misconduct, injury, legal contracts, lawsuits, and how to create inclusivity among the workplace. Does the classical music profession subtly hint at an underlying tendency towards coercive control? We've allowed so much to go on in the dark, swept under the rug, hush-hush, all out of fear of loss of reputation or judgement; and most of it is ourselves plotting against each other, rather than propelling our profession forward in a healthy and sustainable way. We've built a system that's worked against us, not for us. And yes, part of it is the role of capitalism at play and the competitive nature of our profession, and our love of recognition for our status, but think back in history....it's pretty interwoven throughout our profession. Is there not another way? Have we forgotten the true meaning of our art? Yes, corruption takes place every day, and it's not avoidable. The world, including our profession will never be a perfect or safe workplace. But the least we can do, is prevent it as much as possible....which I honestly think we haven't fought hard enough to do; to simply take care of one another. To prevent our students and others from being taken advantage of. The least we can do is be honest about the ugly truths, as well as the benefits, and educate each other on controversial issues within our profession, and what to do when in the middle of such situations. So that way, we at least show we care about one another, have some sense of integrity, and create a better workplace/profession with inclusivity and transparency for future generations to come! I love our profession, otherwise I wouldn't care to write so much on the topic of the dark side. However, I don't think many musicians have the strength and courage to address controversial topics in the classical music profession; big or small....out of fear for various reasons. Yet almost every other profession requires an understanding of controversial issues or social activism in their profession (ex. music education, the medical field) and the ability to critically think and speak on such topics.
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