overpopulation vs different communities

This has been a huge difficulty for me as a musician...
what kind of students am I encouraging and for what kind of future?
What have you dedicated yourself to that is applicable to your community today?

From an interview with György Sebõk in 1976 by Seth Carlin, asking a question which, although posed 40 years ago, is more relevant today than ever. Sebõk’s answer is equally relevant:
Seth Carlin: ‘Mr Sebõk, you have devoted great energies to developing the musical talent of the oncoming generation, but aren’t you concerned about the young musician who graduates from a conservatory today, and goes into a world where there is little or no room for him or her?’
György Sebõk: ‘It depends how you see it. It’s like overpopulation, which scientifically may be true, but you can drive hundreds of miles without seeing anything besides a gas station – so the overpopulation is not obvious. There are a great number of musicians – that’s obvious if you are in Indiana University and you are in one building. But if you travel, then you have the feeling that music is a very rare treasure, that there is no overpopulation of musicians in a real sense. If everyone wants to go round the world, or give a recital in Carnegie Hall, then we are too many. But if we want to live in different communities small and big, and teach and perform music, then we are not enough.’

via {csaba erdelyi}