The Rejuvenated, Web-Wise NY Philharmonic

Free "Plazacast" of NY Philharmonic Opening Night

After reading Terry Teachout's article in this month's Commentary, Selling Classical Music, I feel moved to leap to the defense of my NY Philharmonic.

I'm a longtime subscriber and at one of last season's intermissions, I observed to my husband that the traditionally arthritic audience seemed to be getting noticeably younger. Some unkind wags might suggest that it's just me who's getting noticeably older, but there truly were quite a large number of undeniably spry teenagers and adults where once the dinosaurs roamed.

Terry commented in his September magazine essay (based on his July 19 post on his blog) that the NY Phil has "the oldest-looking audience of any major arts organization whose performances I have attended in recent years." But I wonder if he's been there much during the last couple of seasons, when the demographics appear to have changed.

He ended his blog post by saying:

If [incoming music director Alan] Gilbert and the Philharmonic want to get people like me to go to their concerts..., they'll have to transform the experience of classical concertgoing in such a way as to make it more attractive than staying home--or doing something else.

I also wonder if he's visited the orchestra's website lately. To my mind, the NY Phil makes the most sophisticated and audience-friendly use of new technology of any cultural site I've surfed. Among its bells and whistles: "Listen" and "Program Notes" buttons for the works on every program; a Meet the Orchestra feature, profiling all of the chief orchestra members and even librarians and support staff; and downloadable concerts on iTunes. It even has a section for neophytes with tips on How to Prepare for concerts, answering such basics as "What is classical music?" and "When do I applaud?"

As a subscriber, I get an e-mail prior to each concert linking to program notes with audio clips of the music and sometimes with video clips of experts talking about the music.

Still, Terry asks:

Does Gilbert understand how the new web-based media work? Does the management of the Philharmonic understand? If they do, are they prepared to make a sustained commitment to using these new media to communicate with the public--and will they send the right message?

Maybe Terry has web-based media other than website, e-mail and iTunes in mind, but in these three modes of technological outreach, the orchestra is second to none.