https://thebaffler.com/salvos/strike-with-the-band-wagner
Despite its reputation as being a pastime of the rich and cultured
elite, classical musicianship is better understood as a job, a s***** job, and the people who do that job are workers just as exploited as any
Teamster. Classical music has a high rate of workplace injury,
especially chronic pain and hearing loss. Many musicians don’t own their
instruments, some of which can be as expensive as a new car. My high
school orchestra teacher, who played in a regional symphony, was still
paying off a viola that cost $20,000. Even the elite among players don’t
own their instruments outright; many of these instruments, including
Amati and Stradivari violins, are loaned by philanthropists as gifts. I
had to rent violins from the same company for sixteen years before I had
accrued enough credit to buy one outright at $7,000, right before I
graduated from college. One percussionist I interviewed, who works as a
middle school band teacher, told me: “As a percussionist, another point
of privilege comes with equipment. To own everything we could ever need
professionally is very costly, especially a marimba, vibraphone, and
full set of timpani. So that’s another huge point of privilege when, for
example, one of my middle school students . . . his parents bought him a
marimba earlier in the year. Which is great for him, yet here I am with
my master’s degree, and I definitely don’t own one yet. I probably
won’t for a long time.”