Risk the kitsch: The life of a concert pianist

the-tls.co.uk

35 points·tintinnabula··4 comments

> You see, it all goes back to when I was in Paris. General Stroganoff wrote it out for me himself”.

Pedantic note: the Stroganovs were merchants, and the last male heir in the noble line died in 1923. So the timelines here don't quite line up.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stroganov_family

Interesting description about the life of a pianist - actually any soloist, be it violin, cello, flute - you name it. Talented or not you have to spend 8 hours a day practising - every day. Which for a student makes it impossible to self fund your education if you have to attend other courses during college as well. Don't even consider a social life.

Yeah, one of the joys of learning guitar seriously outside of the day job as a techie is I have a legitimate and valid excuse for not having much of a social circle outside of work at the moment. Takes a ton of work and effort but the end result is hopefully being the life of the concert/open mic night when finally good enough to perform live. I also volunteer at a dog shelter consistently since I need socialization as much as the dogs, heh.

Daughter is currently experiencing this as a piano performance major. And in the jazz band, and the marching band (sax) and the concert band (clarinet) and two vocal groups and working as an RA and trying to keep her "pop" recording/gigging career alive ( https://open.spotify.com/artist/0fDIdSgcV9GejFZw4lYlWf ).

She considers herself blessed to have inherited my sleep disorder so that she has nights to practice. She has pretty much given up on having a social life except with people she performs with.

The sad part, is that in order to have a shot a real career is that she really has to do 90% of all these things. It sucks.

I think she may give up the RA gig next year and just deal with having more debt.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com