Here's something you might be interested in.
There seems to be a perception that classical music is in trouble. The cost of producing quality, live, performances far out weighs the general public's appetite to afford tickets that would support the burden.
In San Diego we have been fortunate to have patrons of the arts who underwrite the costs. There seems to be a perception that this isn't a viable model. This is a viable model. In fact I would propose this is has been the model that has always worked for classical music.
Let's get one thing straight. Classical music always has been and always will be an elitist activity. Classical music appeals to a limited percentage of the population. There was never a day when classical music appealed to a broad swath of any society.
In the past, elitist meant that only the elite actually heard classical music. It is only recently that recordings and now music services have put the catalog at our fingertips.
There are stories about Richter traveling to remote areas of Russia and playing classical music for the small towns. His performances were the first time anyone in those communities had heard classical music in any form.
In the past, in order to hear classical music, you had to live in a city or town that had an orchestra. Rarely was that orchestra self supporting. It was often established and sustained by the local government or nobility--the nobility being the local government in a lot of ways.
Now, so long as you have internet access and a device, you can listen to any piece of classical music you could ever want to hear for a few dollars or for free.
Classical music is not in danger, the structure of classical music consumption is changing and that's a good thing for almost all of us.
We'll look at a few examples of the patronage of the past and the current situation in the next few posts.
There seems to be a perception that classical music is in trouble. The cost of producing quality, live, performances far out weighs the general public's appetite to afford tickets that would support the burden.
In San Diego we have been fortunate to have patrons of the arts who underwrite the costs. There seems to be a perception that this isn't a viable model. This is a viable model. In fact I would propose this is has been the model that has always worked for classical music.
Let's get one thing straight. Classical music always has been and always will be an elitist activity. Classical music appeals to a limited percentage of the population. There was never a day when classical music appealed to a broad swath of any society.
In the past, elitist meant that only the elite actually heard classical music. It is only recently that recordings and now music services have put the catalog at our fingertips.
There are stories about Richter traveling to remote areas of Russia and playing classical music for the small towns. His performances were the first time anyone in those communities had heard classical music in any form.
In the past, in order to hear classical music, you had to live in a city or town that had an orchestra. Rarely was that orchestra self supporting. It was often established and sustained by the local government or nobility--the nobility being the local government in a lot of ways.
Now, so long as you have internet access and a device, you can listen to any piece of classical music you could ever want to hear for a few dollars or for free.
Classical music is not in danger, the structure of classical music consumption is changing and that's a good thing for almost all of us.
We'll look at a few examples of the patronage of the past and the current situation in the next few posts.