The Lean Season

Submission by Janey

This just in: Academics and performers have even one more thing in common! Relative poverty! Shocking, I know. You may be more or less affected depending on your department, location, trust fund, student loans, etc., but we all know that to be a grad student means always going to the department meetings for the free pizza, grabbing every free sample targeted at undergrads on the street, and eating as many beans as we can possibly handle without destroying our relationships with our roommates. This constant state of scrimping gets worse in the summer, as performing ensembles go on vacation, student jobs go on hiatus, and we have to spend our money on festivals, conferences, and the like. If you're so lucky as to have conned your institution out of a stipend, chances are good that will also go on vacation without you, leaving you awkwardly backing out of plans with friends who are gainfully employed all year round and see the summer as a great time to spend some hard earned money. I've observed that this is worse among students, but even professional musicians that I've talked to have to save up for this off-season. Lots of us have our day jobs, but when you're making less than $12,000 a year in Boston any decrease in income can be a challenge. If you're alive at the moment (and maybe even if you're not) you don't need me to say that money is harder to come by. The concert grants, stipends, scholarships, and travel reimbursements are the first to go. Something no one talks about, but I suspect something everyone thinks about, is how the hell we ended up in an unappreciated field, competing with one another for money that is rapidly disappearing. Performing, and academia, have long been labors of love, thankless work rewarded by "a feeling of accomplishment," "knowledge that you're contributing to humanity," and, if you're lucky, tenure. For many of us musicians, we have to add the reward of "help yourselves to hors d'oevres, oh I'm sorry did you think your time was worth MONEY!? How charming!"