MAKING CLASSICAL MUSIC COOL AGAIN

In 2014, Amazon released the comedy-drama series Mozart in the Jungle on Amazon. Inspired by oboist Blair Tindall’s memoir, Mozart in the Jungle: Sex, Drugs, and Classical Music, the four-season show focuses on the daily doings of the musicians in the New York Symphony.

The show focuses on the Symphany’s new conductor, Rodrigo (who is based on Gustavo Dudamel), played by Gael García Bernal. The character Hailey Rutledge is based after Tindall, who is a new oboist dying to get into the symphony. The rest of the cast is put together splendidly, offering great depth in the film.

Well this is...fun?

How many of you were excited to go to music class in your younger years so you could have fun playing music, laugh with your friends, and relax from the typical classroom setting; only to find out you had to watch a boring documentary on a classical musician, and take notes? Or is that just me?

Thankfully, Mozart in the Jungle is different. It is of course a show, and not completely factual, but there is still plenty to get out of it, without taking notes and falling asleep every scene. The characters show emotion, the symphony is struggling financially, some are having identity crises; everything is real. 



Women Classical Musicians Exist?

Not only do women musicians exist, but they often don’t get as much recognition as male musicians. It’s not because women don’t want to or simply don’t play, but there is still a huge rift in the music world when it comes to gender equality.

That being said, I was quite excited that Mozart in the Jungle spent as much time on the female characters as it did on the males. Although it’s only fair, as the show is based off of a woman’s piece of work; but the media being the media, they could have easily skewed that aspect.

Hailey starts off as Rodrigo’s assistant, spending a lot of time making the conductor’s tea. Hailey becomes an equal star in the show over time, and takes control over her identity; something I’m sure all musicians can relate to at some point in their lives and careers.
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Most shows, documentaries, or books about classical music are stiff and almost lifeless. Mozart in the Jungle shows the lives of a musician outside of their art; because after all, they do have one. If you would like to experience the raw, humorous, and captivating show that is Mozart in the Jungle, check out the trailer!

And get to practicing, we all know how inspired we get by entertainment films!