The Two-faces of Classical Music: the Bureaucratic Tyranny of Music Schools

“The reasoning has nothing whatsoever to do with functionality; indeed, it has nothing whatsoever to do with viruses or health safety. The reasoning is about symbolizing conformity to bureaucratic rule.”

This month at the Cleveland Institute of Music (CIM), two students were placed on disciplinary probation for not wearing masks. At first blush, this may seem a necessary and just procedure in response to a violation of school policy. But given a moment’s consideration, the details are so contradictory and incoherent that the incident becomes yet another stunning revelation of the brokenness at the center of universities nationwide: bureaucratic tyranny. Isolated incidents, like this “Bizarre and Tragic Tale of the Two Maskless Musicians,” as we might title it, are not themselves cause to signal the apocalyptic trumpets and prepare for the end of time. However, we should not be misled by their seeming banality, either. They are, rather, like kicking over a stump and finding the squirming maggots, the hollowed dust of corroded wood, and the veins of fungoid disease that has seeped down into the roots and, indeed, throughout the entire forest. These isolated incidents are like singular stumps, and the rot we find is radical and widespread—an ideological pandemic affecting the life of higher education. Consider the following tale an epidemiological case study:

The two students were sitting, maskless, in one of CIM’s concert facilities, Kulas Hall. Kulas Hall seats 535 audience members; however, in this case, there were only 12 others. The two maskless students were sitting about 20 feet distanced from the other students. While it is school policy that masks are required in the hall, it is also school policy that wind players may perform maskless in that same space. And not merely as soloists, but in orchestras. In orchestra concerts, when the stage is occupied by more than 30 musicians in close quarters, wind players are allowed to blow freely through their instruments.

These are not the only instances where CIM policy blatantly contradicts itself. There have been other examples of incoherence as well. For instance, CIM published a video on April 23rd of its president making an announcement, maskless, while standing in the school hallways.