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EDITORIAL: TO HELL WITH YOUNG PEOPLE

David Hurwitz

Reality Check: The Future of Classical Music Lies With Seniors

Maybe it’s because I’ve just turned 40, but it seems that everywhere I turn I’m confronted with the “crisis” of classical music and today’s youth. Gramophone magazine is retooling itself to reach a younger audience. Policy makers and supporters of the arts attend lectures on the theoretically devastating effect the lack of music education is having on America’s young people. Record company executives fret that tomorrow’s consumers aren’t being properly trained to consume. The supposed health benefits of exposing young children to classical music have become the patent medicine of the new millennium. I’m sick of it.

The audience for classical music consists of: (a) those rare, exceptionally musical people of all ages who just naturally like it best; (b) students studying musical instruments at various levels; and (c) older people. Of these three categories, older people make up the largest group. Is this really so surprising? Our population in general is aging. The enjoyment of classical music requires a taste for the finer things in life, loads of patience, a good bit of listening experience, and ample free time. It can’t be hurried. And who are the members of our society most likely to have these qualities? Older people, obviously.

The idea that children have to be systematically exposed to classical music to create future aficionados won’t wash. In the first place, concert venues routinely sell out all over the country. The American Symphony Orchestra League reports that, despite a few well-publicized cases here and there, their members in aggregate are running in the black, with the highest percentage ever of revenue coming from ticket sales. Opera is the fastest growing performing arts medium in the country. Are the audiences for these events children? Of course not. Concert attendees are overwhelmingly adults, and mature adults at that, few of whom had any in-depth formal exposure or training in their childhoods.

Even so-called “children’s concerts” appeal more to parents than kids. I know. For over a decade I played an annual holiday program of Peter and the Wolf at the 92nd Street Y to rapturous audiences of enchanted parents. The children enjoyed it too, but not nearly as much. You see, children have no attitude about whether something is “classical” or not. They like what they like, and want only to be entertained rather than bored. It’s the parents who derive pleasure from the cultural afflatus that surrounds such events. Or look at it this way: Dog food has to be made to look appetizing to pet owners because they’re buying the stuff, not their pets. They want to feed little Snoopy what looks best to Mama and Papa. So it is with classical music. Children’s concerts are really music appreciation sessions for adults. As often as not, the kids couldn’t care less.

Classical music in fact pervades society: in films, television shows, commercials, Olympic ice skating events, restaurants, department stores—you name it. Systematic or not, everyone gets exposed to it at one point or another, certainly in sufficient quantity to determine whether or not they’d like to hear more. Take my brother, for example. He’s a very successful real estate executive in the Cleveland area, with a lovely wife and two adorable kids. When we were growing up, I was playing symphonies, and he was playing football. He hated symphonies; I hated football. Now he attends Cleveland Orchestra concerts regularly, and I never miss a Giants game. What happened? We both grew up. That’s all. It’s inevitable.

The crux of the matter can be summed up in two words: free time. Children in school have very little of it and unless they decide to study an instrument or take a course, most of their exposure to music of any kind will remain purely superficial. Young adults starting careers and families also aren’t likely to have a great deal of time on their hands, and who can blame them for having priorities other than the experience of classical music? And so we come back to old people, the folks with the desire, time, and wherewithal to put classical music higher on their list of priorities. Why are we so afraid of the fact that they comprise the majority of classical music listeners? It’s not as if senior citizens are an irreplaceable resource. All of us, some day, will join their ranks given reasonably good health and a little sensible financial planning.

If the record companies really want to sell more product, and concert promoters dispense still more tickets, they should stop fretting about the “youth” issue. Instead, why not toss some CDs into a van, for example, and start selling them door-to-door in retirement communities in Florida and Arizona? That’s where the “new” audience is, even if it happens to be an old one. Wake up, you foolish label executives blinded by your youth-obsessed colleagues in the popular music division down the hall! Wake up, you concert promoters counting with mounting trepidation the number of gray haired attendees at each event! This is your audience. Accept it. Love it. Cater to it. There’s a lot more where they come from. Leave the kiddies to play out in the yard. Their time will come too–I guarantee it.

David Hurwitz

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