The Journal of the Royal Musical Association has just published a review essay by Jane Isabelle Forner entitled “Classical Music’s Conflicted Futures: Perspectives on the Industry and Academia from Recent Scholarship.” I recommend it to those involved with classical music performance and education, and also to those interested in social action through music (SATM), as a significant part of the essay concerns my book Rethinking Social Action Through Music and its implications for the classical music field.

There are two other books reviewed in the same essay, one of them Voices for Change in the Classical Music Profession: New Ideas for Tackling Inequalities and Exclusions, edited by Anna Bull, Christina Scharff, and Laudan Nooshin. I also highly recommend this book. The essays by Mina Yang (on Dudamel’s YOLA program) and Eleanor Ryan (on classical music teaching in Trinidad) are particularly relevant to students of SATM, but there are half-a-dozen other chapters that are also of considerable value to those working in or on this area.