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A few days ago a friend of mine, who is a professional singer with a gorgeous tenor voice, told me a story about how after one of his performances, a man from the audience approached him and asked for an audition. The man sang a few songs. Although my friend complimented the man on his pleasant voice, he also mentioned that it would be a good idea for the man to get some formal training to improve his singing. The man then proceeded to pull my friend into a debate on the vanity of musical training for singers. And my highly educated friend couldn't prove him wrong.

It's a funny story, isn't it?

Unfortunately, this man's opinion is based on a very common point of view, the lack of value placed on education in the fine arts. Many people do not recognize a necessity of education in music performance, writing, especially in poetry and music, etc. They say "Talent is all you need."

In reality, all fields (the arts included) require training. Would you trust your life to a very talented surgeon with no proper training? Why is it that we understand that a plumber needs training in order to know how to install and fix pipes, while we fail to see the need for training in the arts?

Singers, poets, dancers, composers spend all their lives learning, perfecting. When they choose their profession, they know that they are about to embark upon a challenge that will last a lifetime.

My hope is that our society will finally endeavor to see how important and rewarding for our culture it could be to respect and appreciate the value of artistic education.