Career Counseling at the Music Conservatory

WSJ.com: Leaders of New York's three major conservatories—Juilliard, Mannes and Manhattan School of Music—all acknowledge the need for pre-professional training that addresses the prospects and realities of a competitive marketplace. Much of this involves preparing students for what Mannes Dean Richard Kessler called a "D.I.Y. world," one in which musicians create their own performance opportunities. Today's economic kick-in-the-pants is not necessarily a bad thing. "I think the semi-crisis we're in could be one of the best things that could ever happen to classical music," said Manhattan School of Music President James Gandre, who believes the genre is viewed as so sacred that it's hard to break from conventions.