Bosco- Some Korea/America Chitchat-
This week I accompanied a young Korean friend to New York where he auditioned for the violin program in the Julliard Pre-College Division. I'm still star-struck, having seen both Dorothy Delay, the famed violin teacher, and Itzhak Perlman go tooling by in their wheelchairs within a five minute period. I was hoping Perlman would stop to bask in my adulation, but I guess he thought he had better things to do!
Anyway, of possible interest to this thread was the number of Asian applicants- between Americans of Asian descent, and real live Asians, they constituted about 80% of the dozen or so applicants that I saw. While my sampling was not conducted scientifically, and I was there only for the final day of four days of auditions, it still suggests something to me about what the face of classical music will be in the United States in thirty years. I hope they won't be playing to empty concert halls.
We spoke at some length- well, actually my wife did- with a Korean lady who was there with her daughter. They had been in this country only a few days, and were returning after the girl completed her 10-minute audition. The lady asked if we might have an interest in housing a Korean violin student for a while. She asked for our address and phone number for that purpose, which we were pleased to it give her. I guess what I find remarkable is that Korean parents with musically gifted children still see the US as the place to send their children. This lady made it clear that she does not want her daughter to become a professional musician. Rather, Julliard Pre-College is seen as a good place for her daughter to grow and to learn about American culture, if that's not too much of an oxymoron.
And oh yes, WSJ reported the Korean economy expanded last quarter for the first time since 1997.
Larry |
