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...]
I’ve posted the new first chunk of my book, Rebirth: The Future of Classical Music. Comments on it are welcome. Long-time readers know I’ve been working on this book for quite a while, and that drafts of it have appeared here earlier. But what’s on the blog now is the final version. Only a little to start, but there’s a larger second chunk coming shortly. In the book, I’m saying that our culture has changed, that classical music hasn’t kept up, that this is why there’s a classical music crisis, and that the only solution to the crisis is to set classical music free, and let it take its place in our current culture as a fully contemporary art. Which doesn’t mean we won’t be playing Beethoven, any more than we’ve stopped reading Tolstoy. My book is a message of hope, designed to help all of us, as we work together to build classical music’s future. Watch the blog for more, or sign up for my newsletter. That puts you on my mailing list, and you’ll get email when new book chunks show up online.
Here are some of solutions to the problems classical music has, as sent in by readers, or found elsewhere. Updated every Tuesday. This list is maintained by Douglas Laustsen. (Thanks, Doug!) It'll grow.What's really exciting is that all … [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...]
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Recent Comments
Greg Sandow on Marketing the Met — a real strategy
So glad you like this, Katherine. And good to see you here again. The key to getting people interested, in...Katherine Giaquinto on Marketing the Met — a real strategy
Greg, this is SUCH a helpful post! I've been thinking lately about how to promote local opera to my movie-going generation,...Greg Sandow on Peter Gelb and the missing strategy
Neil, there haven't been socialites in the audience, not for years. They came only in past generations, in the 1940s. And...RedBear on Peter Gelb and the missing strategy
Who is responsible? The Board of Directors. Period. They hired a marketing exec. All the other major opera houses in...Neil McGowan on Peter Gelb and the missing strategy
>> Less glamorous. Less buzzy. << Y'mean they're about the music, instead of the socialites in the audience? I like this...