THE BURNED OVER DISTRICT

What I'll note is that other music genres with limited audiences aren't having similar problems finding young artists to take the place of those growing old. For example, I've featured quite a large number of up and coming bluegrass youngsters on my blog, existing bluegrass players, rather than view them as a threat, take the youngsters under their wings and tutor them and help them. My guess is that the real issue is that American youngsters by and large simply aren't interested in European music anymore, and the culture of European "classical" music as practiced in America is more cut-throat and does not incorporate that bluegrass model of "paying it forward". Instead, the older players view the younger players as a threat that will possibly out-compete them for those rare positions with big-city orchestras that are the difference between obscure poverty and not-so-obscure poverty (heh). This undoubtedly turns off many youngsters who are classically trained who decide, given the hostility towards them, to pursue some other form of music. Thus Alicia Keys and Stephani Germanotta (a.k.a. "Lady Gaga"), both classically trained pianists, both of whom decided to pursue other forms of music when choosing a career.

My understanding is that in Europe they still have something of a guild system for classical musicians, which operates in a more formal manner than the bluegrass method but achieves much the same result (i.e., older players mentoring the younger players). But in any event, blaming the drought of American classical musicians on (lack of) music education in the public schools ignores the large number of those with classical training who have gone on to succeed in other genres of music -- i.e., it's a genre thing, not a lack of talent thing.