Bless you bewtality! by name and by nature it seems? I think I and everyone else would be inclined to heed your comments more if you could support the topic rather than mocking other peoples seriously held beliefs/opinions. I try where possible to answer peoples questions and contribute to peoples debates as i was under the impression that that was the main function of a forum....Perhaps I am wrong and they opperate more like the stocks in that you sit there with your view and get wet sponges hurled at you....erm??..No I dont think so! I still stand by my statement that people and relationships are more important than advancement/careers and indeed status - this is clearly not popular today but then the world we live in is a very sad place in many places today - that isnt coincidental or in anyway unrelated to the way we deal with others and realte to God so look at it and reason it in a secular way if you want but senates and governments have been doing that for a few thousand years and by all accounts It hasnt fixed the problem so good luck to you.
I think - to be fair to "brewtality" - that his brief request to you was not entirely unresonable, at least to the extent that he seemed to imply a desire that contributors to this thread remain on topic without bringing in other considerations that may, to those who share your beliefs, seem to have an indirect relevance to it but that would be lost on others who don't share them.
Let me be clear - I happen to have grave reservations about at least some of what I assume to be your beliefs as you express them but, since you are nevertheless entitled to them, it is not my place to mock them, nor do I seek to do so; nor, indeed, would it be helpful to the development of this thread if I even discuss them here, since they are not the subject of the thread, which is a consideration and discussion of the extent of sacrifice that may be involved in a pianistic career. This is a subject that, in varying degrees, may well affect and/or interest atheists and agnostics just as much as the various kinds of Christians, Muslims, Jews, Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Zoroastrians, etc. who, irrespective of (or even in some cases despite) their backgrounds, are practising as professional Western musicians.
Whatever you - or indeed anyone - may think about "people" and "relationships" (by which I presume you to mean human ones) being "more important than advancement/careers and indeed status", as you put it - and to whatever extent your beliefs may influence your stance on this - the subject thread remains the latter of these two considerations; if you have something useful to contribute specifically to that, then we'll all want to read it, whether or not some of us may agree with it (this is a discussion forum, after all, so some healthy and civil disagreement is not only to be expected but welcomed), but if you feel - as you appear to imply - that the entire business of "advancement/careers" is somehow distasteful and represents some kind of devaluation and/or debasement of human activity and expectation, then it may reasonably be assumed that, beyond so saying, you are unlikely to have much, if anything, to contribute that will be of direct relevance to this thread. May I therefore respectfully suggest that you give this some thought before adding further to it?
Again, I do not seek to mock - or even necessarily disagree with - your assertion here, but unless you propose the wholesale abandonment of the kinds of performance / broadcast / recording activity in which we all expect Western musicians to participate, in favour of "people and relationships", we must seek a more balanced solution and it is, I think, the desire to adress and consider that potential dilemma that prompted m1469 to initiate this thread. The sometimes great and manifold commercial and personal obstacles to the kinds of career under the microscope here cannot be ignored; neither is it sensible merely to declare that one doesn't like them so it would be better if it went away, otherwise the very much greater sacrifice would be that of the immense and ever greater proliferation of Western music.
Best,
Alistair