Greg Sandow on the future of classical music
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…
For years we've been talking about a classical music crisis. And the crisis is very real -- ticket sales have been falling, funding has been harder to find, and the audience, over many years, has gotten older. Many people don't want to believe these … [Read More...]

This was the first in what turned out to be a long series of posts, in which I and many readers highlighted people, groups, and institutions making new departures in classical music, doing things in new ways. This wasn't even close to a complete … [Read More...]

“To be a musician in the service of music is not a job; it is a way of life.” –Isaac Stern, violinist (The Musician’s Way, p. 299) The music education community is swirling with talk about how best to prepare university-level students … [Read More...]

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...]

[From Greg: A followup to Erica's guest post yesterday, about the performance of Winterreise she did in a small town. Here she tells us what she said before the performance, to introduce the piece to an audience that doesn't know classical music. … [Read More...]

Conventional wisdom: the classical music audience has always been the age it is now. Here's evidence that it used to be much younger. How young the audience was in 1937: Results of an audience study, showing a median age around 30 (from … [Read More...]

While we're still talking about CD covers, I thought I'd add a few likes of my own. Starting with this one, which I've loved ever since the recording came out on LP in 1962: Of course it's Siegfried, from the Georg Solti Ring. And there … [Read More...]

[Lara Downes was the first of our guest bloggers here, and she began with a post about classical CD covers she likes. And about how she came up with the cover for her own latest album. Her list -- along with mine, and others that I hope will come … [Read More...]

I've spent some time compiling a list of videos I think especially stand out from the very bland standard classical music videos (no easy task to find these!). Most bigger budget classical music videos are basically just documentations of … [Read More...]
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Recent Comments
Greg Sandow on Two paths
Glad you brought up that crucial point, David — forging real ties with a new audience, and deepening those ties....David Snead on Two paths
Greg, I think you've laid out some good potential markets and pointed out where learning more about these markets --...Greg Sandow on Two paths
David, Thanks for all of this. Very good thoughts, very good questions. Which of course have to be answered by any...Rick Robinson (Mr. CutTime) on Spring…
You know I’ve got to speak up about this one Greg. There’s still a lot to tear down about and...David Snead on Two paths
Hi Greg, I think it was Will Rogers who said "It ain't what you don't know that'll get ya, it's what...