Mozart in the Jungle: Sex, Drugs, and Classical Music

. She mounts a biting critique of the conservatories that churn out 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 she depicts as bloated and ripe for downsizing. 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." But the vivace of the chapters on her bohemian salad days subsides to a largo as she heads toward 40 and the sex and drugs recede along wit

In the tradition of Anthony Bourdain’s Kitchen Confidential and Gelsey Kirkland’s Dancing on My Grave, Mozart in the Jungle delves into the lives of the musicians and conductors who inhabit the insular world of classical music. In a book that inspired the Original series starring Gael García Bernal and Malcolm McDowell, oboist Blair Tindall recounts her decades-long professional career as a classical musicianfrom the recitals and Broadway orchestra performances to the secret life of musicians who survive hand to mouth in the backbiting New York classical music scene, where musicians trade sexual favors for plum jobs and assignments in orchestras across the city. An incisive, no-holds-barred account, Mozart in the Jungle is the first true, behind-the-scenes look at what goes on backstage and in the Broadway pit.. Tindall and her fellow journeymen musicians often play drunk, high, or hopelessly hungover, live in decrepit apartments, and perform in hazardous conditions working-class musicians who schlep across the city between low-paying gigs, without health-care benefits or retirement plans, a stark contrast to the rarefied experiences of overpaid classical musician superstars

Interesting Autobiography and Important Counterpoint to "All Your Dreams Can Come True" A. Lawyer I could almost give it a 5. The book is an interesting, realistic sounding autobiography about a life most of us imagine as more refined. While some reviewers say boring, the author's journey to what seems like success--but still insufficient to maintain a secure career--was interesting enough to turn it into a TV series (which has little relationship to the book). Readers might be referr. Amazon Customer said I seldom give 5 stars. I seldom give 5 stars. I am doing so because this tells of the reality of an arts education. I wish that every parent of a child planning (or the parents planning) to make a career in the arts read this book.I have a child with such a career but thanks to school districts having music programs she has a good income. She performs but that almost makes enough money to attend music festivals. "The seedy underbelly and stark realities of classical music" according to Howard Golden Jr.. Blair Tindall's biography is a window into the inner workings of classical music-making, sort of the sausage-making processes of this over-glamorized industry. Too many qualified applicants for too few job openings is one of the biggest takeaways of the book, followed by unjustified, bloated salaries of music executives, while the creators of these arts are the financial "bottom feeders."