That’s what Diane, the announcer on the classical music station, said today. To begin with, music is the international language so why is it important to know the nationality of any artist — the geographic borders they’re from — or where they were born? What does that have to do with the music? For example, a Russian born pianist doesn’t play Rachmaninov any better than a pianist born somewhere else. In fact, the Russian pianist trained in the Russian School of Piano Playing may be accused of “banging.” (My favourite performance of the Rachmaninov Third is by Cristina Ortiz, born in Brazil.) Or a German born pianist doesn’t perform Brahms any better than any other pianist. Talent and artistry are not determined by human-made geographic borders. When will the nationalistic basura in the classical music field grasp that?

I’ve never heard Diane or any other announcer say, “the old American pianist.” So why was it important to know that the pianist was “young?” And which “America” is the pianist from since there are 3 Americas? North America, Central America and South America? Of course Diane meant the United States of America, the official name. That’s the only country never having had the intelligence to come up with a real name for the name of its country. Or as some people say about the US: “The country with no name.” Exactly right. Because there are other “United States” on the planet but they chose a real name for their country other than “United States.” They didn’t arrogantly steal the name of the entire hemisphere America as the name of their country.

All Diane and others like her had to say was: [name of pianist] will play [name of piece] for us. Because since music is the international language, we didn’t need to know that the pianist is from the US or that she is “young.” So they tout “young” pianist but they never say “old” pianist or “senior” pianist. Their ageism is duly noted.

As I’ve said before, the classical music field and its annoying announcers (with few exceptions) have some really insane traditions — and that’s being polite — and classical music stations in lockstep all promote these insane traditions in order to fit in and conform so to be seen as legitimate at what they do.

Related: Music is the international language; not a national language.