Classical Music: The Trickle-Down Effect?

You may have seen the article by Leon Botstein October 3rd in the Wall Street Journal Online: The Unsung Success of Classical Music. Botstein writes:

The heralding of the demise of classical music is based on flimsy evidence. The number of concert venues, summer festivals, performing ensembles and overall performances in classical music and opera has increased exponentially over the last four decades. There are currently nearly 400 professional orchestras in America, according to the League of American Orchestras, while 30 years ago there were 203. There are up to 500 youth orchestras, up from 63 in 1990. The number of orchestra concerts performed annually in the U.S. has risen 24% in the past decade, to 37,000. Ticket-sale income from orchestra performances grew almost 18%, to $608 million, between the 2004-’05 and 2005-’06 seasons.

This is all good news.  Without wanting to sound like Eeyore, though, I have to wonder why CDs sales and classical radio haven’t kept pace.  Is all this success going to trickle down?  Classical radio listening has been flat, as we’ve reported in this space before. You can read the most recent audience statistics from the Station Resource Group and the CPB in Grow the Audience.  I’m just saying…

Does this mean we’re all weaning ourselves off canned music and we’re listening to more live music?  I’m pretty sure downloads haven’t replaced CDs by volume yet in the classical realm, and I know online listening is still only a fraction of the numbers that listen to terrestrial radio.  Are we changing our habits?  Are we too busy to listen?  Are we in our cars less?  Are we listening to news/talk instead?

I have lots of questions and very few answers.  Botstein goes on to say,

To survive and flourish we need to stop playing the same repertoire in concert and in the opera. Would we run a movie theater by screening the same dozen films ad nauseam, never showing any new releases or reviving old classics? There is so much more to be listened to in the history of music; yet judging from the repertoire that has become standard, it is as if all but two rooms in a museum were closed…

To thrive, managements need to innovate and learn from the enthusiastic embrace of Western classical music around the world. Success will be found by adapting better to local circumstances and by looking beyond our borders. Los Angeles, Atlanta and Minneapolis are promising examples where orchestras have become more important to civic life by making their programs challenging and relevant, reaching out — particularly to schools and colleges — beyond the confines of a concert hall. Above all, let’s abandon politically correct notions about how ethnicity and class constitute barriers to the appreciation of classical music, a universally admired dimension of high culture and the human imagination.

The same holds true for radio.  It’s Change We Need.

About Marty Ronish

Marty Ronish is an independent producer of classical music radio programs. She currently produces the Chicago Symphony Orchestra broadcasts that air 52 weeks a year on more than 400 stations and online at www.cso.org. She also produces a radio series called "America's Music Festivals," which presents live music from some of the country's most dynamic festivals. She is a former Fulbright scholar and co-author of a catalogue of Handel's autograph manuscripts.

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4 thoughts on “Classical Music: The Trickle-Down Effect?”

  1. Great post, excellent questions. I’ve been staring at the screen blankly for a few minutes hoping that I have the answers;)

    Maybe classical is no longer background? People want to listen to it when they really can pay attention? Or is it because orchestras and opera companies have made it chic/exciting to go out to concerts, while radio is still (perceived as) stodgy? I’ve got nothing really–I look forward to reading other people’s thoughts on this topic.

    And whatever the reason-if orchestras/live music groups are on their way up, it’s especially important for us to build/maintain partnerships with our live music community organizations. We’ve gotta ride that wave;)

    Mona

    p.s. I got hung up on one of Mr. Botstein’s assertions “Classical music has never been the passion of the young” and blogged about it: http://www.wvpubcast.org/blogs.aspx?id=5346&blogid=312

    Reply
  2. “Wild and Wonderful” W.Va. is lucky to have Mona.

    I came to Classical Music as a child, because it was in our house. My father had an extensive LP collection, Bach through Copland, mostly major works. I recently rebuilt that collection in digital form, CD’s ripped and mp3 downloads. My addiction runs up through late 20th century, Glass, Reich, Riley, Messiaen, Part, etc.

    I believe that like language and faith, music needs to be in the home.

    I am sixty-seven. Now, because of Public Radio, I am stimulated to build a Jazz collection. The excellent presentation of Jazz by Dan Buskirk and Will Constantine Jr. at newly public WPRB, Princeton, NJ (http://www.wprb.com) and projects like Steve Rowland'(http://www.artistowned.com)
    “Tell Me How Long Tranes Been Gone”, presented at WNYC, and “The Miles Davis Radio Project” are all great stimuli and learning experiences.

    I find that what I am doing is rebuilding a digital collection of what I used to hear,1964-1967, at commercial station WHAT, Philadelphia, 24 hours of Jazz, minded by Sid Mark and the great producer Joel Dorn (Joel Dorn had to be very young at that time).

    I had none of this in the house and don’t even remember what started me. I think that it was my artist wife’s interest. But there was none in her house growing up.

    So, the influences can come from any direction.

    We need to support artists financially, whether by going to concerts or buying CD’s an mp3’s. My choice is normally living composers, although at the moment I am acquiring John Coltrane and Miles Davis, to classicists if ever there were classicists.

    Reply
  3. Part of what’s going on is that the classical audience actually breaks down into three subsets that only partially overlap. Ask the season ticket holder how many recordings are in their collection, or what radio station they regularly listen to — most purchase recordings infrequently, and are usually indifferent radio listeners.

    Folks who listen to classical radio extensively are also usually occasional record buyers, and casual concert-goers.

    Record collectors may go to some concerts, but not a lot. And they’re usually not very interested in classical radio (especially if their own collection offers a much more diverse listening experience).

    Granted, this is primarily anecdotal, but when I worked at a classical label, I found the buying patterns I saw tended to support this theory.

    Reply

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