"... the compositions of an unknown Czech composer fell into [Johannes Brahms[ hands in 1875. Fascinated by the work of the young Antonín Dvořák, who came from a small town near Prague on the banks of the Moldau, Brahms immediately had him come to Vienna and arranged for him to receive a state scholarship. For the then 36-year-old Dvořák who was eking out a meager existence as a music teacher and orchestra director at the Prague Theater, heaven had just opened forth.... "

https://web.archive.org/web/20080820143636/http://filebox.vt...

Visit the tiktok / instagram profile of any young person and you will notice thousands of hours invested in it.

It's just natural nothing else will be produced.

My daughter graduates from HS this year and is beginning a performance degree program at a well-known US conservatory. There’s no way to acquire the requisite musical skills, contacts etc. but by spending prodigious sums of money. You are competing against kids whose parents spared no expense for upwards of 14-15 years.

I suppose it’s not much different than non-music disciplines; but for art in particular, it seems that something essential is at stake in the way that those who succeed/survive have unrepresentative backgrounds.