Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Adult Beginners Forum is there any truth in this

I have a very good Jewish friend who said to me that most of the top musicians are Jewish. I am not sure I agree with this because whatever Religion you are, if you are a good musician, you are a good musician. Why should the fact that you are Jewish make a difference? If you look online it is usually the Chinese who are very very good especially at piano and they start from the age of about 3 and by the time they are 8 or 9 they are classical pianists playing big sonatas.


http://youtu.be/6A-HGqUNXI4

UUummmmm.... you're an adult. You haven't figured out that many people are biggoted? It's basically people loving themselves and nothing else. They only want to think good of others that remind them of themselves. Complete selfish, self centered thinking.

I'm assuming your friend is referring to the classical pianists. they were, after all, from Europe where piano took off. I think that doesn't really apply to musicians now a days.

At the risk of being politically incorrect, I do believe there is something in traditional Jewish culture that encourages an appreciation for learning and the arts and the fosters the discipline to achieve a high level of scholarship or proficiency.

Well, if you were Jewish in many parts of Europe, a lot of professions and trades were closed to you. So music might have been be a reasonable way to make a living.

And if you were a new immigrant to the US, and your English skills were limited -- "Would you like to play fiddle?"

It's not that Jews were inherently more talented, but that many other paths were closed off. IMHO.

In the early days of computer programming, there were _lots_ of female programmers, compared to females in other professions (and trades). It was a new field, professional standards hadn't been established, and there was nothing to stop women from getting jobs (and doing them well). Whereas getting into medical school was a huge problem.

It's very difficult to tease out "native ability" from "societal pressure" from "prejudice".

. Charles

PS -- If you'd like, I can find you an article in the online "Jewish Daily Forward" about the large number of Christmas carols written by Jewish composers.

I am willing to change religions if it will improve my piano. But can I keep my Christmas holidays.

It's Jewish moms that make great Jewish pianists...

This really goes beyond opinion. It is a fact. The reason so many Jews were bankers and jewelers was because they were not permitted to own land and were not allowed to join a guild so they could not open a shop. (No one would buy at a non-guild store). Money lending was closed to all Christians so Jews took on that profession because there wasn't much else they were allowed to do to feed their families. Because of bigotry and violent pogroms, Jews had to find ways to earn a living that were portable - thus money lending, banking, music and jewelry . These facts were twisted and distorted by antisemites who were looking for a scapegoat.

That was the cleverest way of getting that point across imaginable ( by me anyways) I hope the recipient gets it!

as an aside, does anyone know where I can learn about klezmer music? I just love it so very much, its like I have allways heard it, but only found out a few months back what it is called.

Anyone know of any resources?

I'm going to close this topic as it can go nowhere but downhill. Sweeping generalizations to do with race, gender, religion, etc., are rife with counter examples and generally promulgated by people with biases or some other agenda. Rostosky, if you wish to investigate resources for klezmer music (which I've never heard of), please start another thread.