Karl Miller wrote:

>Anne Ozorio wrote:
>
>>Look at many orchestras - Korean players, Chinese and Japanese.  Both
>>native born, mixed race and second generation.
>
>I wonder what accounts for the increase in players from those parts of
>the world.

This is something that will probably be commented upon by others, including
me when I get a chance:-)

>In your post you also mentioned some of benefits of both the participation
>and appreciation of art music.  I wonder what a list of those benefits
>might be.  I have often thought how many praise sports as a way to develop
>team spirit, but what about chamber music...as far as I know, no child
>ever died from playing chamber music!

True enough, but the 'team spirit' aspect as far as ensemble playing
sometimes isn't well reinforced, especially when the childrens' parents
are more interested in getting them into a solo spotlight.  As an example,
I'll cite cases I know of where kids who worked hard to audition and
were accepted into a local youth orchestra organization ultimately
declined to join, because: 1) they didn't get into the upper level
orchestra their parents thought they should have; or 2) they didn't get
positions as a first violin or as a lead/principal for their instrument.
In other words, they didn't like the idea of spending a year 'paying
their dues' before getting into a spotlight position.  Not much different,
in my mind, from the kind of competitiveness one sees in ambitious
"soccer" parents, etc.

Plus, the World Cup matches in Korea a couple of years ago gave me a
different take on how Asian societies can view sports relative to the
arts.  Sometimes it's not much different than the atmosphere at a football
game at a Texas school:-).

Bill H.