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I used to call it the decline of classical music — the aging, shrinking audience, the mounting financial woes.
But now I’d rather call it the change. The old ways fade, becoming unsustainable. New ways of doing things emerge, and begin to define our future.
Though this doesn’t mean we shouldn’t still catalogue the change. One place you can find a catalogue of changes, as the old ways fade — changes going back decades — is a blog post of mine called “Timeline of the Crisis.”
And here’s a dramatic new entry for it. It was posted on Facebook by Marianna Gray, a friend of my wife’s and mine in Washington. Marianna is a lively and knowledgeable classical music fan (and not from an older generation), who travels to European music festivals. This summer she made a striking discovery:
WOW! I was checking the summer festivals just now. It used to be that places like Verbier and Lucerne would sell most (if not all) of their concerts to the Friends of the Festival, nothing would go to general public. That was especially true about Verbier that had kind of a “cult” following. This year…. EVERY concert is available. Premium seats. The same goes for Lucerne. Not a single sold-out performance. Even more shocking – one can buy tickets to any of the four Ring Cycles at Bayreuth (on-line, mind you AND conducted by no less than Kirill Petrenko). Only Thielemans’s Tristan und Isolde is sold out. WOW WOW WOW. The situation is somewhat “better” for Salzburg where most of the operas and some of the concerts are sold out. It is vary clear that the audience is changing. And it would be false to say that there is no audience for the classical music in general, but those who were willing to spend big $$ to attend the festivals are literally dying out and the younger people have neither time nor the money for such an extravagant affair….
Of course I’m quoting her with her permission. And I should add that she may or may not agree with my view of the larger classical music story. But she was happy to let me pass on what she discovered.
As a footnote, I might cite a story that appeared in the New York Times a little before Marianna’s post, about the oldest classical music festival in France: “Strasbourg Music Festival Closes, Cites Poor Ticket Sales.”
Of course each festival has its own `situation, and for Strasbourg, one factor was not just a fading audience, but competition from a nearby festival in Germany. Still, at one time the two festivals might both have been able to flourish. That doesn’t seem to be true anymore.
Meanwhile, of course, classical music really is changing, and out of the changes — new ways of giving concerts, new ways of playing old masterworks, new ways of writing new classical works — a future emerges, in which classical music will survive, and very likely flourish. That’s a story, as long-time readers know, that I celebrate in this blog.
The new ways don’t seem to be selling a lot of tickets either, though. Younger people want lower cost concerts but then how do you pay for the performers, cast, crew or what have you? I suppose there is always the argument that younger people will pay large sums to see Taylor Swift or other notables but that’s par for the course. I’m not sure one can even compare the two. They’ll pay good money for a nice meal too but balk at $50 for a chamber music show.
As for the festivals, people aren’t planning ahead like they used to, not subscribing like they used to, maybe not willing to pay for premium tickets like they used to – that’s the reality of the new audience that you’ve talked about. But then, what are performers supposed to do for whom that’s been their livelihood? You just can’t do big works in a bar with a couple of rehearsals. I don’t know. I’m not being especially coherent.
I guess my point is – yes, things are changing. That’s fine, but it seems like things are declining faster than they are reforming. So how then do we embrace this moment and pivot to a better future. Does that make sense?
Very good points, Jason. I’ve often said that the financial model for the new ways hasn’t yet emerged. We don’t know how classical musicians of the future will make their living. And it may be that fewer people will make a living from classical music in the future than do now. Though we can’t say yet how things will work out.
Of course, some things done in the new way really do sell a lot of tickets. The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment in London has large and successful concerts for a younger crowd. The London Symphony sold 5000 tickets to a weekend festival of music by Steve Reich and people he’s influenced. The Brooklyn Philharmonic, in the next to last year of its existence, sold many tickets to programs aimed at specific Brooklyn communities. (Their demise wasn’t due to their new audience strategy. It was due to very long-standing, very serious financial problems.)
There are many more examples. The problem, overall, is that established classical music institutions depend on people coming over and over again each year. And it’s not clear that the new audience will do that, especially not for repeated concerts of the standard classical masterworks. It’s also true, as you say, that the lower ticket prices younger people need won’t pay the bills for a large classical music institution. That’s a problem readily recognized in the business.
But we don’t know yet what the future holds. There may be solutions for all these problems. And at least they’re being addressed.
The “people will pay big bucks to hear a big pop star” argument – well, it’s really just a complaint – gets aired often by us classical types, and there’s a basic problem with the comparison. And no, it has nothing to do with the pop-versus-classical, art-versus-entertainment thing.
When most people spend huge amounts of money to attend a performance by Taylor Swift/Beyoncé/Kanye West/James Taylor/the Rolling Stones/whomever, they’re not doing it every week, or even every month. It’s a special-occasion splurge.
The classical music institutions we’ve set up can’t support themselves on special-occasion splurge spending.
Fair point, although at least when I was growing up where I grew up, an evening at the Metropolitan Opera was very much special occasion splurge. I still remember my father renting a tux for the evening. Not that anyone dresses for the opera anymore. We certainly weren’t season ticket holders. It was a one off every few years. I kind of feel that way about the symphony now. Special occasion, special piece or performer, ok, but who has the time (or cash) to go regularly. Maybe when I retire.
And there we have something like half the explanation of the graying of the audience. If you’re not rich, retired, or (sometimes) a student who can get discounted tickets, you lack the money and/or the time to go regularly.
Well, at least to the large, high-profile venues that many of us think of as “classical music”.
The reason Lucerne isn’t selling out is probably that Abbado died, and there’s no one yet who has been able to replace him. He was an institution there.
As I said in my post, each festival has its own situation. So, sure, maybe Lucerne suffers from the lack of a beloved conductor. But if many festivals suffer a loss of ticket sales at the same time, then there’s some larger cause, something that affects all of them, quite beyond what any individual festival might be going through.
“The change” …
So classical music is going through menopause?
“:-}
I’d say it’s more like a stodgy old caterpillar changing into a butterfly. And, sure, i’ve now reinvented the path of insect development, but whatever. Classical music is, we can hope, on the upswing.
I am not a great fan of classical music but I have and do attend some concerts. I am always struck by how rigid is the experience. There can be no noise, cough, sneeze, wiggle or god forbid, any manifestation of an emotional response to the music. So it seems to me…. I adore jazz and while every audience is respectful of the talent, one can display feelings with out the shushing and glares and harrumphs that are readily available at classical concerts. It is more like punishment then joy, as if one is back in grade school and a nun saw you wiggle at mass… I was told by a true fan it is because microphones are frowned upon for distorting the sound.. but yet they distort no other musical genre..
Perhaps it is not the music that the next generation does not relate to, but the audience experience.. No one should sit in utter stillness with their hands folded after the third grade..
I am sure that every classical music geek with be appalled, but they are not the ones you want to start coming… I am..
Very well put, Sharon. I completely agree. These problems are being addressed, but maybe not fast enough, at least by the biggest classical music institutions. Keep reading my blog, though, to find out about concerts done in new ways that don’t turn a new audience off.
Well, at least the classical music fans realize they need more recruits. If jazz fans did the same instead of pretending jazz is still popular music, maybe it wouldn’t now be even less popular than classical.
^ Though even that is just going along with jazz’s illusions about itself to make a point. The fact of course is that jazz is now a genre of classical music.
I think we need to establish a “new” tradition, that allows people to openly enjoy, move, drink, talk, clap, and laugh without disturbing the music as happens with amplification in a club or restaurant. At the same time, we can explain and validate the concert hall experience as a sanctuary that maximizes the impact of the music as a quiet and meditative experience. We CAN have it both ways and each mode can support the other. Naturally, some music won’t work well in the club (slow, very soft, very long), but the masses CAN be introduced to our liveliest music here.
Sharon, your reference to a MASS is right on the nose. Classical music, by partnering with silence, is essentially more spiritual than not. As such, the POINT is to internalize music and have a personal, inner experience that is impossible to share exactly. I advise newbies to close their eyes to get their money’s worth… or come to the club and play eggshaker with us.