Chicago Classical Music

There is a lot of hand-wringing about disturbing instances of non-traditional approaches to attracting audiences. But not enough attention is given to the reverse: the 90% of concerts that go the same old tired way they've gone on for generations, with diminishing returns.

More concert producers need to take more risks, and different risks, more often. Successful businesspeople brag about how their failures taught them lessons that led to later innovative triumphs. The same should go for classical music presentation.

The trick is to bring your audience along with you. Admit to them that you're experimenting, that life itself is an experiment, that you're not going to scare them with permanent changes, just IMPERMANENT changes.

Another thing: devote as much care to your experimentation as you would to perfecting a Carter quartet. A concert--all aspects of it--are like the pieces performed: a lot of hard work toward a hope of perfection. But after the music is over, you move on to the next concert, the next experiment!

This is an intersting question.  I have loved Classical music all of my life.  My father introduced me to Gilbert & Sullivan and Beethoven at the early age of nine; then a friend gave me a record "Walt Disney Presents the Lives of the Great Composers and Their Music."  The more I heard, the more I loved, and eventually I chose Beethoven as the greatest of them all.

One thing that I think would help to reach people is to educate them about what these great composers went through.  Maybe if there were programs dealing with biographies coupled with selected works, I think it would go a long way to interest young people.  My father let me borrow the old Milton Cross and David Ewen Encyclopedia of the Great Composers and Their Music.  I have always loved how these biographies were written because the authors put in the personalities of these people.  The result with me was when I heard the works, they made more sense to me because I had read something about the life and was in sympathy with the artist.

Bruce,

You are right.  Any hook to draw people into the world of classical music should be used.  Lets face it, some of these folks were the J-Lo's and Branjelina's of their day, though with a lot less make-up and cosmetic surgery.  Yes. we should tell the stories!

Let me first start by saying that this is a great website/forum for classical (serious) music lovers.  But I am surprised at the lack of participation there seems to be here.  Is there a lack of inspiration?  A lack of interest in discussing the future of the classics?

It seems to me that attracting new audiences to the world of serious music starts with educating those around us.  Everyone loves the first movement of Beethoven 5.  How many times do you hear fragments of Nutcracker during the holiday season (on comercials, in elevators, etc)?  So we already have a head start in that the general public is familiar with classical music.  The problem is getting people to carry it a step further - they may be familiar with Dvorak 9, but not know who wrote it, or where to find a recording of it.  I believe with proper guidence, the general public would listen to more classical music - and maybe this website could serve that purpose to a certain extent.

In terms of programing movie soundtracks for the concert hall - such as the popular John Williams concerts with the CSO, it serves the purpose of getting folks into the venue and experiencing live symphonic music.  But hopefully it wouldn't end there.  My concern is that this type of program doesn't give one the full concert experience due to the lack of sophistication of the music itself.  Not to be a snoot, but the reason people respond to movie music is because they are responding also to the memory of the filmed experience, hence they are not getting the full musical experience one should have when attending a concert.  It is kind of like going to a 5 star restaurant and ordering a burger and fries.  The burger and fries are wonderful, but lack in the area of complexity and sophistication that you should be going to the restaurant for in the first place.  Maybe that person would be inclined to go to that restaurant again and be a little more adventurous in ordering.  Or they may decide that they can get burgers and fries a lot cheaper at McDonalds, and it is almost as good.  

I would hate to think that people attending a concert of LoTR music would leave less than satisfied because they didn't have the film to go along with the music and therefore would not bother with going again.  For that reason, I have no problem with Orchestras programming Beethoven 5, Dvorak 9, etc. year after year, provided they do so in an attempt to attract new blood to the audience.  Even a novice surely should get more out of a live performance of Tchaikovsky 4 than LotR.  Or maybe that is wishful thinking on my part....

Well, there is my take - almost 2 years after Mr. Hirsch's post...