Resonate

Greg Sandow, a former music critic for The Wall Street Journal and Entertainment weekly, blogs about the future of classical music. In his most recent posting, he discusses a “hidden cost of classical music.” 

Sandow says that people don’t realize that a well-respected pop musician such as Ani DiFranco doesn’t need to attend music school so that she can fill a venue, whereas a musician has to invest in her craft, paying for years of lessons and schooling.

Is this true? I just assumed that people knew we were trained.

Sandow’s post sparked a conversation about whether pop musicians can attract a larger crowd than an orchestra because the pop artists will generally only appear once a year in a given city. Meanwhile, orchestras assume there is a general demand to hear them play every week or so.

As Sandow suggests, demand is the important factor in determining how many concerts to give. Subscriptions — typically purchased by an aging audience – for orchestras have declined, and now it is time to think about how to attract a younger audience without dumbing down the performance. Perhaps orchestras should copy the North Carolina Symphony’s subscription series targeting people under 35 years old as a way to fill the concert hall.