This just occured to me. Classical music purists insist that classical music is valuable precisely because it isn’t popular.
Which becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. You define classical music as not popular, and its look and feel starts to reflect that. People — no fools they — start to get the message, and classical music actually becomes unpopular. People stop listening to it.
And so the purists get their wish, though not quite in the way they expected. They hadn’t figured that if classical music wasn’t popular, it might disappear.


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Greg Sandow on Good news from Toronto
Thanks! It's wonderful to have this corroboration. I'm sure Peter Oundjian is a crucial part of the Symphony's success.Greg Sandow on Philharmonic clarification
Christina, when the Philharmonic played in Lewisohn Stadium, they didn't have any marketing department. Or any corporate sponsors. Those things...D Shapiro on Good news from Toronto
As a subscriber, and a parent of a 29-year-old, I can provide a little insight. My daughter is fairly typical...Christina Jensen on Philharmonic clarification
If that is true, it's unlikely any publicists were involved, but rather marketing departments and corporate sponsorship folks. http://nyphil.org/support/corporate_benefits.cfmJon Silpayamanant on Good news from Toronto
Some classical music institutions attract a young audience by lowering ticket prices, but then they need funding to offset the...