The broad goals of this paper are to discuss the relation of the art of music to our society and our culture, to examine the artist as an individual in today's world, and most importantly, to present some of the personal and artistic conflicts that young musicians may experience during
their formative years. In addition, I will suggest a few general solutions that address the problems inherent in educating the performing musician of the late twentieth century. [In celebration of MPPA's 20 years of publication, we are looking back at some of the notable articles that appeared
in the early issues. This paper was published originally in December 1986 MPPA.]
