Off to see Panula again

Probably for the 3rd and last time, I'll be taking a masterclass from Jorma Panula again.  This time the repertoire is Ravel La Mere L'Oye, Dvorak's Carnival Overture, and Mozart 39.  We received an email yesterday (3 days prior to masterclass) that we would also be conducting Brahms 3 and Sibelius 6.  So instead of writing this blog, I should actually be studying my ass off.  
Sibelius 6 I did with Panula last year, but even as I look at the score, I wonder, why did I do that then?  Strange how time forms the bizarre mushroom in your skull called the brain.  And Brahms 3.. I did that with Panula in 2007.  He must recycle.  Not bad pieces to do so with.  The violin part is in any case less daunting than it was back in my orchestral violinist days.  Crossing the fingers (well, toes are more appropriate) at the leaps of faith still applies.  
I remember in any case that the orchestra in Budapest was not so musically warm and communicative as I had hoped.  Of course they played well, but there was a wall between us conductors and them.  This situation is different.  There will be a 19 piece ensemble (I'll play along as well, seems much more fun than sitting around waiting my turn).  Far from complete... 

What's been on my mind recently is the future of classical music.  I see my orchestra petering out (literally).  In my choirs there are young people, but not nearly enough to replenish the old, especially tenors and basses.  The Netherlands, (and the world), on the other hand, becomes fuller and fuller and fuller of people who have nothing to do with, or no interest in, or not enough schooling for practicing a musical art form.  The world is becoming full of emptiness.  

Less is more less is more less is more...

Some day I might start my own school where-in children sing and play an instrument daily.  It's been on my mind.