Transnational Musicians: Precariousness, Ethnicity and Gender in the Creative Industry

by Beata M. Kowalczyk

Overview

Informed by theories pertaining to transnational mobility, ethnicity and race, gender, postcolonialism, as well as Japanese studies, Transnational Musicians explores the way Japanese musicians establish their transnational careers in the hierarchically structured classical music world.

Drawing on rich material from multi-sited fieldwork and in-depth interviews with Japanese artists in Japan, France and Poland, this study portrays the structurally – and individually – conditioned opportunities and constraints of becoming a transnational classical musician. It shows how transnational artists strive to conciliate the irreconcilable: their professional identification with the dominant image of ‘rootless’ classical musicianship and their ethnocultural affiliation with Japan. As such this book critically engages with the neoliberal discourse on talent and meritocracy prevailing in the creative/cultural industry, which promotes the common image of cosmopolitan artists, whose high, universal skills allow them to carry out their occupational activity internationally, regardless of such prescriptive criteria as gender, ethnicity and race.

Highly interdisciplinary, this book will appeal to students and researchers interested in such fields as migration, transnational mobility, ethnicity and race in the creative/cultural sector, gender studies, Japanese culture and other related social issues. It will also be instructive for professionals from the world of classical music, as well as ordinary readers passionate about Japanese society.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780367692001
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	08/01/2022
Series:	Routledge Research in Transnationalism
Pages:	204
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.19(h) x (d)

About the Author

Beata M. Kowalczyk is an Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Sociology, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań, Poland.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements x

Technical note xii

Introduction 1

Barriers on the way to transnational careers in the creative/cultural sector 2

The Japanese and authentic classical music: Unrequited love or unequal relationship? 3

Sociological approach to transnational careers in classical music 4

The research material: Japanese classical musicians in three contexts 7

The composition of the book 8

Note 11

References 11

1 Theoretical and methodological approach 14

Creative/cultural industries from a critical perspective 14

'Cool Japan': Creative industry in Japan 17

Contemporary classical music industry 19

Precariousness, inequities and work identification in the classical music sector 20

Recasting musicianship in the context of transnational mobility 25

Experiences of precarious musicianship among female and male Japanese musicians 29

Talking hardships of mobility in classical music: Methodology of the fieldwork 33

Notes 37

References 38

2 Positioning Japanese classical music within the global hierarchy of value 47

Classical music and the making of modern Japanese society in the pre-war period 49

Classical music in the post-war period 60

Summary 67

Notes 68

References 70

3 The plight of musicians in Japan 74

Structural and institutional context for becoming a professional musician in Japan 75

Passage from the university to the market 78

Experience of precariousness among full-fledged musicians 83

Male musicians: A salaryman in the orchestra? 85

Between a passion and a profession: The contradictory status of married female musicians 89

Single female musicians and their 'weathering careers' 93

Summary 96

Notes 97

References 99

4 Studying classical music in its 'birthplace': The Japanese go to Europe 102

Educational mobility of Japanese music students 104

Authenticity and societal constraints as the main mobility drivers among music students 105

Chasing after the experience of authentic classical music in Europe 106

Striving for emancipation from societal constraints 109

France: Two modes of entering the music milieu 112

Poland: Integrating into the 'Chopin niche' 116

Summary 119

Notes 120

References 122

5 Music knows no borders? Crisscrossing French, Polish and Japanese music milieus 126

Japanese musicians in France 129

Negotiating ethnicity in French orchestras 130

Tackling precariousness: Freelancing musicians in France 135

Japanese musicians in Poland 139

Building a career around Chopin's music 140

Transnational engagements of returnees 145

Summary 151

Notes 152

References 153

6 Japanese classical musicians: Between professional satisfaction and frustration 157

Orchestra musicians: Performing occupational and gender roles in the music world 159

Female musicians: Scaling down professional aspirations 160

Male instrumentalists: Creating music independently outside the orchestra 162

Making music a job: Professional satisfaction among freelance musicians 166

Female musicians: Stretching professional activity beyond the gender role 167

Male musicians: Performing music in the context of work-centred masculinity 169

When there is no other way: Professional conversion 170

Evanescent pleasures? Classical music profession in post-COVID-19 times 173

Summary 175

Note 176

References 176

7 Concluding remarks: Transnationality as a 'Liminal status quo' 179

References 186

Index 189