Re: OT: French composers are leaving France for the US?

[Daniel Berkman <danielberkman@mac.com>]

Well put, Rick!

_____________________

Daniel Berkman | Colfax 
Kora • Gravikord • Handsonic 
Musician • Composer • Producer
www.danielberkman.com
Phone: (415) 254-4895
Email: danielberkman@mac.com

On Nov 30, 2010, at 3:43 AM, Rick Walker <looppool@cruzio.com> wrote:

> Art Simon wrote:
>> Really, I'm shocked. It doesn't seem like the US right now is really
>> flowering with interest in contemporary music. I thought with IRCAM's
>> rich history, not the least of which is that it's the origin of MAX,
>> France was the mecca for contemporary music. I guess I'm out of touch.
> 
> IRCAM has certainly been an amazing resource for talented french (and 
>other)
> composers and producers.
> 
> Because I live here in Santa Cruz, where Creative Labs and Emu Systems 
>have been
> for a long time,  I know that Creative has continually hired the best 
>and brightest
> spacialization experts straight out of IRCAM.    I've met so many 
>brilliant
> spacialization experts and , indeed, one woman,  Veronique Larcher was 
>like
> Gertrude Stein in this area because she was so invested in producing new 
>music
> events and connecting different musicians together.    She was a godsend 
>to our
> area, culturally and it was tragic to me, when she was forced to leave 
>the area for
> economic reasons.
> 
> But that's the rub:   a lot of people coming out of new music  programs 
>everywhere
> either have possibilities to teach (which are diminishing rapidly at 
>least in the US)
> or to take on high paying jobs like all the spacialization experts who 
>came from
> France to our area, straight out of IRCAM.
> 
> The same phenomenon can also be seen in Northern California, which 
>really has a tendency
> to produce forward thinking and innovative artists (probably due to not 
>only it's extremeley
> liberal and artistic intellectual climate but also due to the extreme 
>wealth that existed here for
> so long with the Dot Com boom).   By the way, paranthetically,  I'm not 
>saying that other countries
> or regions don't also have tons of creativity..........I'm not that 
>insular...........lol
> 
> There has been an astonishing brain drain of young musicians out of both 
>the San Francisco and
> Monterey Bay areas because of economic hardships and how expensive it is 
>to live here.
> Hundreds have moved to Portland, Oregon, Seattle, Washington,  Austin, 
>Texas,  New York City, New York
> and out of the country to avoid how expensive and hard to exist that is 
>for a typical Northern California
> artist.
> 
> But you can't completely kill the French spirit any more than you can 
>kill the Northern California
> spirit.............those composers are still creating amazing things and 
>they are still French......
> they just may feel that they can't afford to live in France any longer.
> 
> It's happening all over the world, which is why we need to be vigilant 
>as artists and we need
> to be focused on building community to counter the economic trends of a 
>world that is working
> with increasingly diminishing resources with a population that is still 
>swelling rapidly.
>