From a musician in a mid-sized orchestra, at a meeting I was at today:
I was taught that the art is everything, but that’s a fallacy. I’ve come to think of classical music as an advocacy profession, like being a lawyer, and working as a public defender. You’ll have to explain why you do what you do.
Many younger musicians feel this way. Another way I’ve heard them put it is that careers aren’t in any sense automatic, even for musicians who are really good. To some extent, you’ll have to make your own way — and an important part of your job may be to explain classical music to people who don’t know much about it.