Winning the War of the Words!….

In class today we discussed the word virtuoso and how it is essentially reserved to describe Classical artists. From time to time you hear it sparingly used to describe Rock Guitarists and Jazz musicians but not often. I say we shouldn’t give the word up, but definitely give it over….

I played for them an excerpt of the Mandolin playing of Chris Thile and his ex band Nickel Creek. Click on track No. 4 here. There is no doubt in my mind he is a virtuoso, plus he is playing the Mandolin an ancient instrument! Now he is playing Bluegrass, but does the genre prevent him being known as a virtuoso. I say that is what he should be called. As Classical musicians we should allow ourselves to truly revere those who are not Classical musicians, but there is larger point I want to make. Let’s also put that concept into practice. Why not create a series called The Virtuoso and invite Chris Thile, Martha Argerich, Edgar Meyer, Eddie Van Halen, Arturo Sandoval, Joshua Bell, and the list is endless. Let’s celebrate that achievement no matter what the instrument, the training, the genre or the philosophy might be, then the barriers might just start to disappear between them and “us”. Then they can all be celebrated.

I look at the Olympics and how there is no discrimination between the different athletic events. The 100 meter sprinter will run for about a minute in total (heats and finals combined), the marathon runner runs for over 2 hours, yet their medals are equal, and their achievements are considered equal. No one suggests that the marathon runner’s medal should be bigger because he trained for more hours and ran longer in the actual race!