Interlopers in the Realm of High Culture: “Music Moms” and the Performance of Asian and Asian American Identities
2009; Johns Hopkins University Press; Volume: 61; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1353/aq.0.0114
ISSN1080-6490
Autores Tópico(s)Musicology and Musical Analysis
ResumoIn a series of articles about summer camps, the New York Times reported on the Perlman Music Program, a prestigious six-week instructional program led by the world-renowned violinist Itzhak Perlman. The article focused less on the teenagers who attend than on the efforts and ambitions of the moms who enroll their children in advanced programs of music study. As the reporters note: moms' seasons are far longer than those of moms. Their financial payoffs are far smaller and more elusive than those of tennis moms. But they are every bit as competitive, protective, ambitious, and self-sacrificing. The ethos of self-sacrifice emerges clearly in a comment offered by one of the article's featured mothers, Mrs. Kim, who bluntly states: First priority is Yoon-jee.1 For Mrs. Kim, this has meant living apart from her husband, a South Korean diplomat whose work required him to return to Seoul, so that her daughter, Yoon-jee, could continue her piano studies at the Juilliard Schools Pre-College Division. From the initial decision to enroll their children in music lessons to the continued labor of driving back and forth to music lessons, performances, auditions, and rehearsals, moms are active architects of their children's musical development. What the New York Times article makes clear is the integral part that parents?in particular mothers?play in the realm of classical music training. Indeed, to understand the broad context of Western classical music making, an examination of the role of moms who facilitate and support their children's musical pursuits is critical. Variations of the stage mom exist in many different realms, from competitive sports to beauty pageants. Yet, while the soccer mom typically brings to mind the image of a middle-class, white, suburban mother, as this essay reveals, the traits of sacrifice, pushiness, and determination embodied in the mom have increasingly become as sociated with being Asian.2 The contemporary racialization of the mom is not necessarily surprising given the large number of Asians and Asian Americans involved
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