Family Connections

Aidan Clare Ramsey had an article in VAN Magazine the other day in which he discussed classism and money and the extent to which they control who has a shot at getting started and being successful in western classical music. Kate Wagner had an article on similar themes on The Baffler about three years ago. Donna Lee Davidson wrote about how expensive it is to be a percussionist, and the barriers that creates, at I Care If You Listen.

There's been some publicity in the last few years about the high percentage of people with doctorates and people in academia who have one or more parents who have a doctorate or are in academia. It's getting harder and harder for people from less privileged backgrounds to get into academic and classical music.

Today, Joshua Barone has an article in the NY Times about Santtu-Matias Rouvali, who is presently chief conductor of the Philharmonia Orchestra of London, and who is presumed to be a candidate to succeed Jaap van Zweden at the NY Philharmonic. It definitely caught my eye that his home in Finland is a 34-acre farm, but then I got to the part about his parents, who are or were both members of the Lahti Symphony, an excellent orchestra whose conductors have included Osmo Vänskä. Here are a few other people in classical music who have the parental-musician advantage:

• Conductor Joshua Weilerstein (parents are both prominent teachers)
• Cellist Alisa Weilerstein (parents are both prominent teachers)
• Conductor Alan Gilbert (parents were both members of the NY Philharmonic)
• Conductor Marin Alsop (parents were both members of the NYCO orchestra)
• Composer Samuel Adams (father is a well-known composer)
• Conductor Michael Tilson Thomas (show-biz parents and grandparents)
• Ken-David Masur (father was a well-known conductor)
• Stage designer Mathias Fischer-Dieskau (father was a very famous baritone, mother was a cellist)
• Conductor Martin Fischer-Dieskau (father was a very famous baritone, mother was a cellist)
• Cellist Manuel Fischer-Dieskau (father was a very famous baritone, mother was a cellist)

I'm sure that you can think of many more examples. Growing up with musical parents, going to the right schools and knowing the right people provide big boosts.