Very insightful article:
Classical composers ignore amateur music making at their peril
Edward Caine https://substack.com/home/post/p-195502594
Here are some quotes that I find contain profound and sharp diagnose of the industry. If you find it interesting, make sure to check out the OG article (link above). All rights belong to Mr Caine.
As students, musicians often view amateur performance with a certain haughty scepticism and give it a wide berth, feeling that if they end up involved in amateur performance they are somehow “sliding backwards” from a position of a professional career.
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The line between amateur and professional can often be much more about money and aspirations than it is about ability. Amateur, at its core, means “lover” of music and at that level I would place most professional musicians too.
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Chopin toured the world as a pianist, playing his own works to an enthusiastic crowd, and the hook for the audience was that for the cheap cheap price of 1d, or whatever the currency was, you too could play like Chopin and own the sheet music for his works. Nearly every household that wasn’t poor had large upright piano in the living room and Chopin’s music offered a rich variety of easy and difficult works that an amateur pianist could work through at their leisure, imagining themselves to be like their hero Herr Chopin.
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One of the things eroding classical music as a genre is stagnation, and the lack of new material for amateurs to perform.
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If not, I can see the ecosystem of classical music collapsing. Classical music, much more than popular music, is principally a live music medium. Not many people are interested in hearing a new recording of Chopin’s Sonata No.3, but seeing it in person performed in front of you is breathtaking.