It's all in the genes

Is it a bonus or a burden to be the musical child of musical parents?

- MICHAEL WHITE

As Philip Larkin’s famous poem said, ‘They f*** you up, your mum and dad.’ And it’s a notion that, since Larkin dropped it into common consciousness back in the 1970s, has gathered traction – notably in families where children grow up to be what their parents were. We’re told that doctors/dentists/lawyers steer their offspring into dutiful pursuit of similar career paths, whether it’s a good idea or not. And when it comes to music, everybody knows that runs in families. Think Bach. Think Mozart, Richard Strauss, Stravinsky…

But was Larkin right? And didn’t Mozart, Strauss and co have reasons to be grateful – on the whole – for what their fathers gave them, passing on a way of life in which they flourished? Overbearing, pushy and exploitative he may have been, but Leopold gave Wolfgang Amadeus an extraordinary foundation for emerging genius.

Pondering these things, I went in search of latter-day musicians who grew up with prominent musician-parents, asking them about the pros and cons, and whether they’d have had it any other way. I wanted representatives of different generations, and compiled a list that honed in on composer Michael Berkeley, son of composer Lennox; composer Roxanna Panufnik, daughter of composer/conductor Andrzej; clarinettist Sacha Rattle, son of Simon; and Michael Papadopoulos, the young conductor (currently resident at the Vienna Volksoper) who is the son of conductor/pianist and founder of the Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra, Marios.

None of them, I should say at the outset, have regrets about the parents they were born to, or about growing up in a musical household. But that said, it’s clear that being part of a high-profile musical household is a mixed bag of benefits and challenges when it comes to forging your own path in life. And the solutions, coping mechanisms, call them what you will, vary from person to person.