About ten, fifteen years ago, a phrase occurred to me: “the Sinification of music.” This refers to the ever-growing influence of Chinese musicians on Western classical music. Has this influence been positive or negative? It’s hard to think of it as anything but positive. Westerners are letting music go, some people say. If that’s true, others are eagerly picking it up. In 2009, I interviewed Lorin Maazel, the veteran conductor, and asked him about the future of classical music. (A standard question, usually posed nervously.) The first words out of his mouth were, “Thank God for China.”
Time was, Chinese or Chinese Americans were string players or pianists. The kid practicing the violin in the back room of his parents’ laundry may be a stereotype — but it’s perfectly true. I saw it with my own eyes, or heard it with my own ears. Asians and Asian Americans (if I may broaden our categories) are still string players (and pianists). About half the violinists in the New York Philharmonic — a not atypical American orchestra — are Asian. So are about half the cellists. Asian Americans face quotas at universities — ceilings. But the beauty of blind auditions, which are the rule in music, is that no one can be discriminated against, except musically.
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