Every time someone tells me the classical music audience is graying and dying off, it pushes my blood pressure up several points. It seems that even some of those in the business of presenting classical music content in the concert hall, on the radio, online or wherever, have heard that said enough that it has - for them - become fact. However, I am here to tell you that it is not true. The proof they offer is to tell me to look around the concert hall. Yes, those who attend "traditional" classical concerts tend to be older, but the myriad ways people listen to and are exposed to music of all types, including classical, means that the concert hall is not the only place you should be looking. Online consumption, mobile apps and downloads are but a few of the many ways listeners are exposed to classical music. A recent Arbitron report showed that...
'Classical musics solid performance in recent years has been good enough to lift the format into second place among all public formats.'
The average age of the Classical 101 audience has been dropping in recent years - and a recent NPR blog called Deceptive Cadence shared five videos which show the breadth of ways classical music and musicians touch our daily lives. Warning...don't let the organist freak you out. The instrument you'll see him help design is worth the wait. So parents, keep taking your youngsters to music lessons, help support music instruction in your local schools, and do a little exploring of YouTube to see the amazing wealth of classical performances available at the click of a mouse. Maybe your child isn't going to be the next Joshua Bell or Alisa Weilerstein, but they will be among the audience to hear them perform. The video above is from From the Top and was one of those mentioned in the blog from Deceptive Cadence. The Konpeito Cello Quartet plays The Path of the Wind theme from the classic Hayao Miyazaki film Spirited Away.