Are Orchestras “Better than Ever”? — What Not to Tell a Young Musician

“Orchestras are better than ever” – if you mean that, literally, you mean that in terms of the role the institution plays in Minneapolis or Philadelphia or Boston, it has a bigger and more important role than it’s ever had in the past. Anybody who says that – they don’t know what an orchestra is. So this is a dangerous thing to tell young musicians. – Joseph Horowitz