No Vivaldi in the Garage: A Requiem for Classical Music in North America

by Sheldon Morgenstern

Book Overview

For nearly 40 years, Sheldon Morgenstern has devoted his life's work to classical music in a highly successful career as a musician, symphony orchestra conductor, teacher and director of a major music... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1555536417
• ISBN13: 9781555536411
• Release Date: July 2005
• Publisher: Northeastern University Press
• Length: 188 Pages
• Weight: 0.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.1" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

The U.S. cultural wasteland

No Vivaldi in the GarageSheldon MorgensternMusic Day in my elementary school in North Carolina was always an adventure. Two boys would be sent down the hall to roll the little piano into our classroom, and someone fetched the big carton of "rhythm instruments". This was a collection of things my folks called "noisemakers" at home - tambourines, triangles, cymbals, sandblocks, and wooden sticks. At the appointed hour either Miz Crystal Bachtell or Miz Margaret Marsh would arrive for our lesson. Miz Bachtell was a dignified lady, with blue eyes and blue hair, and she wore sober gray suits with silk blouses and a discreet strand of pearls. Miz Marsh was young and snazzy, and dressed in leopard prints and cat-eye glasses decorated with rhinestones, and her hair was a different color every time we saw her. Both possessed the formidable talent of making Stravinsky's "Petrouchka" realer to us than Walt Disney's "Pinocchio". We were taught to read music, to sing in harmony, and to bang things in time to a piano accompaniment. We loved it.Each spring, when the North Carolina Symphony came to town, we were given a special course to acquaint us with the orchestra's program. After a few weeks of listening to recordings and learning about the composers' lives, we were taught proper concert comportment: the symphony has four movements, don't clap between them; wait until the conductor turns and bows before applauding; don't sing along; and don't chew gum during the performance. That was how I first heard "The Firebird" and Dvorak's "New World Symphony", when I was ten years old. It was an experience that set me on a lifelong path of concert-going and paved the way for my own professional music career.Sound like a lost paradise? Well, it was a very long time ago, about 40 years, and judging from reports of my nephews' and nieces' schooling, things have changed a lot today.In Sheldon Morgenstern's "No Vivaldi in the Garage" we are shown a heartbreaking picture of the growing wasteland that is the current U.S. cultural scene. Lack of government funding for the arts, bureaucratic managements, overpriced soloists - all are taking a toll on the availability of performing arts to the American citizenry. When I was growing up, music lessons were not considered a luxury. They were a part of one's general education, as much as biology or football, and from our high school orchestras and choirs came the fine musicians who are being thrown out of work today, as one orchestra after another goes bankrupt. This book is a "must" read for all who love the arts. In addition to spotlighting the precarious situation of symphony orchestras, music festivals, and theatres in today's cultural landscape, it offers the delightful portrait of a truly formidable educator. Every page that Mr. Morgenstern writes breathes love for the many students he has helped to professional careers, and pride in their achievements. Would there were more like him, and more money to go ar

Passionate advocacy

Morgenstern tells a rattling good tale with a tone that is conversational and readable. Unfortunately, his message is startling and alarming for those of us who care about the future of classical music. His perspective as a lifelong champion of music education gives the narrative authenticity and credibility. His points are illustrated with numerous anecdotes, both humorous and depressing, culled from his many years as a professional conductor.It is the politicians, especially school boards, who should read this book, but at the very least, we can hope that it provokes discussion and alarm in professional musicians and educators to shake off any complacency they may have and speak out for classical music's survival.

Do Something Before It's Too Late

An engaging read, Sheldon Morgenstern's "No Vivaldi in the Garage" is a startingly truthful account of what goes on behind the scenes within the classical music industry in North America. The author, a seasoned musician, orchestral conductor and music educator, appeals to readers to "do something before it's too late!" That "something" may well be reinstating music education in the American public schools. Without that early foundation, there may be no hope of any classical music audiences in the future. My recommendation: Run out and get this book, read it and, within your own community, "do something before it's too late!"

An Eye Opener for Volunteer Boards

Every volunteer board member for any arts organization in the US (especially those related to classical music) should read this book before voting on anything at their next meeting.Morgenstern tells us the behind-the-scenes truth about the business of making classical music in America and casts some dire predictions about its future. He documents that symphonies in particular are in danger of going the way of the dinosaurs without a complete revamping of the manner in which America deals with the arts, its professional musicians and the musical education of its MTV age children.The book is grounded in Morgenstern's lessons learned as music director of the Eastern Music Festival in Greensboro, NC which he founded and lead for 35 years as conductor of the Eastern Philharmonic Orchestra before his move to France, where he now guest conducts regularly in Europe's more hospitable musical climate. Morgenstern gives both the layman and the professional alike a seldom seen glimpse into dealings with the prima donnas and bureaucrats, the geniuses and drudges, the students, volunteers, financial backers and paper-pushers who populate the classical music world and are collectively sitting silently by as it lies on its last sickbed. The book is full of personal stories about the best and worst of the famous, from Leonard Bernstein to YoYo Ma; but he also gives the reader some sense of the joys and frustrations he experienced at the EMF summer festival where he happily served as teacher and mentor for thousands young classical musicians over the years, many of whom have played with major orchestras all over the world. Every serious music student, professional musician or conductor will recognize in these collected rememberances familiar stories about the beauty and difficulty of a career in music-making. In a trumpet call for unlikely government support, Morgenstern leaves us a stern prediction that without strong European-type subsidies and a renewed dedication to music education in our schools, we may all soon discover that we will no longer be able to find any Vivaldi in the garage, or the local concert hall, on NPR or even on a CD at the mall for that matter.

Engaging

I find this book engaging, extremely well researched, and highly informative. It certainly forced me to look at classical music (especially in terms of education) in ways that I'd not before done. I highly recommend it to those already involved in the performing arts, those who are thinking of a career in the performing arts, and especially to parents whose children are still of school age. As the author states, we are about to lose a precious commodity unless people begin to act quickly.