Education and learning occur in various settings, some of which are more formally institutionalized than others. Even if it seems to have failed as a definition of art, awareness of art-world institutions has increased in the wake of George Dickie's proposal that art enmeshes an artifact in a set of interlocking yet informally structured art-world systems, that is, "the art-world." However, relatively little of that attention has fallen on the distinctively educative roles played by art-world institutions and those who act on their behalf. This oversight is sometimes addressed when the topic is the art museum, but very little has been said about parallel issues concerning music, the concert hall, and what Virgil Thomson dubbed the "music appreciation racket." In this essay, the author aims to identify and address a significant moral problem that arises in that particular borough of the art world. He is concerned that, in the interests of securing an audience for instrumental classical music, many cultural authorities are adopting strategies that are contrary to responsibilities generated by their role as music educators. The author's focus is instrumental European tonal art music composed between 1750 and 1950, but he assumes that the discussion has ramifications for other kinds of music. He is particularly concerned with music without an intended program or programmatic title, music that is ""detached" from text, program, or function"" and often called pure or absolute music. (Contains 53 notes.)