- Paperback: 288 pages
- Publisher: Atlantic Books (18 Aug 2005)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 184354492X
- ISBN-13: 978-1843544920
- Product Dimensions: 23.1 x 15.5 x 3 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 495,643 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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More About the Author
Product Description
Review
"'The most candid and unsparing account of orchestral life ever to see print... Blair Tindall tells it how it is - the sex, the drugs, the influence racketeers' Norman Lebrecht * 'Mozart in the Jungle's scandalous peek behind the facade of classical music is bound to cause shock waves' Michael Sheldon, Daily Telegraph * 'An explosive personal memoir... Tindall's book is an 11th-hour wake-up call to orchestras to clean up their act before it's too late' Evening Standard"
--This text refers to an alternate
Paperback
edition.
Product Description
By age 16, the author of this piquant memoir was dealing marijuana, bedding her instructors at a performing arts high school and studying the oboe. Later, her blossoming career as a freelance musician in New York introduced her to a classical music demimonde of cocaine parties and group sex that had her wondering why she 'got hired for so many of my gigs in bed'. "Mozart in the Jungle" is a biting critique of the conservatories that produce thousands of graduates each year to pursue a handful of jobs, the superstar conductors and soloists who lord it over orchestral peons and a fine arts establishment depicted as bloated and corrupt.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
When I first began reading this book I almost put it down after a few chapters. Not that it's badly written, it isn't, but the stories of what goes on behind the scenes in the classical music world as experienced by the author didn't tell me anything that I didn't already know about life in the arts in general so it came as no big surprise. Then I read Chapter 12 titled appropriately TWILIGHT OF THE GODS and from that point on got the background on what happened to classical music in America and how it went from something once valued as a cultural necessity to becoming a commercial commodity to an ever decreasing audience.
As someone who has spent over 20 years in public radio trying to bring classical music to a wider audience, it was eyeopening and depressing to see how it happened from someone on the inside who experienced it firsthand. I won't go into details here, you'll have to read the book for that but anyone who loves or cares about classical music in America owes it to themselves to check this book out to see what happened and hopefully what can be done about it. The autobiographical parts are sometimes offputting in their verisimilitude as Tindall doesn't hesitate to call a spade a spade especially concerning herself but the observations she makes based on experience and solid research cannot easily be dismissed or ignored.
Classical music will never hold the place it once did in American society as there are just too many alternatives coupled with poor public education for that to be the case. However after reading this book you'll be in a much better position to understand why and just what can be done to keep it from disappearing altogether. The situation is bleak but far from hopeless if specific issues can be acknowledged and addressed. Knowledge is power and this book is an excellent place to start. Tindall's story is like a microcosm of the classical music industry. If she can overcome her problems (she did) then so can it.
As someone who has spent over 20 years in public radio trying to bring classical music to a wider audience, it was eyeopening and depressing to see how it happened from someone on the inside who experienced it firsthand. I won't go into details here, you'll have to read the book for that but anyone who loves or cares about classical music in America owes it to themselves to check this book out to see what happened and hopefully what can be done about it. The autobiographical parts are sometimes offputting in their verisimilitude as Tindall doesn't hesitate to call a spade a spade especially concerning herself but the observations she makes based on experience and solid research cannot easily be dismissed or ignored.
Classical music will never hold the place it once did in American society as there are just too many alternatives coupled with poor public education for that to be the case. However after reading this book you'll be in a much better position to understand why and just what can be done to keep it from disappearing altogether. The situation is bleak but far from hopeless if specific issues can be acknowledged and addressed. Knowledge is power and this book is an excellent place to start. Tindall's story is like a microcosm of the classical music industry. If she can overcome her problems (she did) then so can it.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Reading the blurb on the jacket of this book, you'd think its a Jackie Collins novel, Blair Tindell is an oboist from New York who has a lot to say on the state of classical music in the US, and the drudgery of being a badly paid, over worked classical performer (of which there are so many). There's some titillation in her book but nothing to get excited about. Musicians like many other human beings take drugs, have sex and drink too much. So what ?
Tindell writes very well, the narrative motors along if at times you want to skip the wadges of padding dressed as extended essays and history lessons. This reader was not surprised that Blair changed careers in her late thrities from being full-time musician to career in journalism, playing music to supplement her income. A brave move but undoubtely a wise one. What lead her there is the interesting part.
She's very observant (and sanguine ) of musical society, the letching, the sleeping around the get the best jobs, the general mysery and fawning patronage of classical music by a select few. Its all very depressing but familiar me though my orchestral freinds in London. Much as I love music, I think I'd go crazy if I had to play for a living.
If you are planning a career in classical music, or have freinds or children considering one, this book will put them straight. Its very honest, some reviewers have said damning. Truth is empowerment, and this is why am recommending this excellent book.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I bought this for my husband for his birthday last year, as we are both oboe players and were interested in the subject. He read it in a few weeks and seemed to enjoy it, but I could not finish it - 100 pages of terrible writing were enough for me. I didn't care enough about the writer or her story to make it to the end.
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