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Greg Sandow on the future of classical music

Black-tie splendour

May 10, 2011 by Greg Sandow

I’m using the British spelling in honor of my hosts at Cambridge University.

And of course I’m talking about what the male participants will be wearing, in the debate I’m taking part in, in Cambridge on Thursday, May 12, under the sponsorship of the Cambridge Union Society. But the content is surely more important than the dress. What we’ll debate is the relevance of classical music to young people. I’ll be arguing that it isn’t relevant — or, at least, not without extensive changes. Go here for details.

But then my loyal readers surely know that’s what I think. They know, too, that I’m not saying that classical music is doomed, or that younger people will never listen to it. I’ll be making my usual points — that classical music has drifted far from the mainstream of our culture, that it’s not surprising that younger people (and older people, too, for that matter) don’t find it compelling, and that none of this will change until classical music changes.

The debate will be streamed, and you can watch it live at 7 PM British time on the 12th, at  www.cus.org. Which means 3 PM, US Eastern time. Note that we in the east are only four hours behind them right now, instead of five, because we’re on daylight savings time, and they aren’t. (Those in other time zones, in the US and internationally, can make appropriate adjustments.) 

The stream will be archived, they tell me, and should be available at the same address a few days after the debate. 

I’m looking forward to this greatly, and after the debate will spend a few days hanging out in London, meeting people and checking out some musical things. 

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Greg Sandow

Though I've been known for many years as a critic, most of my work these days involves the future of classical music -- defining classical music's problems, and finding solutions for them. Read More…

About The Blog

This started as a blog about the future of classical music, my specialty for many years. And largely the blog is still about that. But of course it gets involved with other things I do — composing music, and teaching at Juilliard (two courses, here … [Read More...]

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Resources

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Timeline of the crisis

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Before the crisis

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Four keys to the future

Here, as promised, are the key things we need to do, if we're going to give classical music a future. When I wrote this, I was thinking of people who present classical performances. But I think it applies to all of us — for instance, to people who … [Read More...]

Age of the audience

Conventional wisdom: the classical music audience has always been the age it is now. Here's evidence that it used to be much younger. … [Read More...]

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