<p>I went to the local symphony in the last couple of weeks, and noticed that the average concert goer appeared to be in his/her 70’s. Most of the ads in the program appealed to those in their later stages of life - cancer treatment, funerals, burials, extended care facilities. Even people in their 50’s were younger than the average concertgoer.</p>
<p>This got me thinking. For my friends (we’re middle aged), it’s a lot of work to drive to downtown, park, walk to symphony hall and repeat on the way home. Probably, door to door time from home to concert seat is about 90 minutes each way, so it makes for a long evening. While we had fun, I can’t really recommend it to other people my age as we’re all busy.</p>
<p>So, as far as I can see, I think half of the current concertgoers will not be concertgoers in 10 years, and probably 70% won’t be in 20 years…is there much of a future for formal musical events?</p>
<p>What I think they need to do is broadcast it live over the internet, like Netflix. Then rather than traveling 3 hours roundtrip, we can enjoy it in our living room. We’d get 90% of the benefit of actually seeing it live, but would make it a whole lot easier to enjoy. Thoughts? </p>
<p>For reference, in some cities they are broadcasting plays/musicals/symphonies to movie theaters, and people go to their local particpating theater instead of the building downtown. It’s widely successful.</p>
<p>I think a larger issue here is that formal music events like these need to learn how to target the younger crowd much more aggressively and do more to counter some perceptions that these events are for the “older crowd” or are filled with snobby fans who’d promptly look down upon you if your musical preferences tend to be overwhelmingly oriented towards mid’50’s and later. </p>
<p>The latter is especially key as plenty of us young’uns (boomer aged and younger)grew up with snobby classical music fans among neighbors, relatives, teachers, and even a few snotty classmates among us. Some of us even suffered through piano or other classical instruments being forced on us when we had no desire to be musically expressive…or preferred more modern forms such as electric guitar/bass, drums, synthesizers, etc. </p>
<p>Other factors may include the “formal” aspects and possibly the ticket prices. Agree on broadcasting live performances and PBS has already done some of that. </p>
<p>As for live performances/events that aren’t as formal…they’re actually doing pretty well from what I’ve seen in the NYC area. Many Indie musical performances in small bars/performance venues tend to be quite packed with people ranging from young adults to seniors.</p>
<p>Not surprising…music programs have been cut in many schools-and especially orchestra, kids aren’t exposed to orchestras like they once were. As a child, we had at least one field trip each year to some kind of music venue-Symphony, Chamber Orchestra, etc. Now kids are lucky to get a field trip, let alone one to a Symphony. Then, with the economy the way it is, luxury items are being cut from budgets everywhere.</p>
<p>There is in areas with a substantial Asian population.</p>
<p>When I go to concerts, I also see a disproportionately large number of senior citizens – except among the Asian members of the audience, who are of all ages.</p>
<p>OP, I think that depends on your area.
The Seattle region supports music in the schools & to a professional level.
My D’s high school won the National Orchestra cup last month at Lincoln Center (for the 2nd time in a row).
They tour the USA, Europe & Asia regularly, perhaps they will be in your neighborhood someday.;)</p>
<p>I don’t know about broadcasting symphonies, but those plays and musicals they are showing on screen are very limited productions. Very limited. Perhaps one or two have been done for very limited runs, out of the hundreds of different shows that are produced onstage every year. Regular broadcast of plays and musicals will never happen in our lifetime. The rights are very well-controlled for a reason. Live theatre actually does very well, not only in the large theatre cities like NY, Chicago and Toronto, but regionally as well. Sitting in your home watching a play or musical on a computer screen or tv is a very different experience than being in the theatre. There’s a reason it’s called live theatre!</p>
<p>As for symphonies, in our experience, the audiences are mixed. While there are certainly a lot of senior patrons, it isn’t the only demographic who are regular attendees. Our symphony makes a concerted effort to attract younger people and they have a well-established youth and school program. Fortunately, in Ontario, our school all still have music and drama programs and dedicate music and theatre teachers. This, in my opinion, is one of the key elements in developing future audiences, because many parents do not provide their kids with this type of experience, unfortunately.</p>
<p>I would love to see the kids getting more exposure to these events. D and I have attended some of the Washington Symphony Orchestra summer concerts at Wolf Trap and she was surprised at how much she enjoys them.</p>
<p>The community symphony I play in doesn’t charge admission for kids through high school.</p>
<p>This makes it a lot easier on parents to bring their kids, so we get a pretty decent mix of people.</p>
<p>At one of the venues we play in, a local retirement home buses over seniors for the concert, so that tends to to skew the crowd for that concert.</p>
<p>Several of our members teach music in the local schools, and they do a good job getting kids (and their parents) to come. Sometimes they offer extra credit, or require attendance at a concert as a class requirement. At our last concert, we played Scheherezade by Rimsky-Korsakov. There is a big violin solo in this piece, and our concertmaster (who played the solo) teaches at the school we perform at. She incorporated the work into her classes, and we would up with 400 people in the audience, which is a huge crowd for a community orchestra.</p>
<p>The more frustrating issue is when we program anything even remotely out of the classical top 50, it thins the crowd out considerably.</p>
<p>-engineer it may depend on what slot you have for tickets.
Young people may attend different hours than you do.
My dad always had season tickets to the symphony, but I am more likely not to have season tickets but go to special events, like Carmina Burana. I love Benaroya, but I can walk to The Tractor ;)</p>
<p>( I did travel to Santa Barbara a few years ago to see the seattle symphony perform featuring Nadja Salerno-sonnenberg- that was fun & they performed more modern works)</p>
<p>But really there is so much to do- that you can’t do everything.</p>
<p>You should try the chamber orchestra picnics at Lakeside in the summer.</p>
In my area, in addition to the main Big City orchestra, there are several smaller Big City Orchestras, and a number of university and community symphonies, which often are surprisingly high quality.</p>
<p>So it’s not always necessary to make the long trip to the city.</p>
<p>I live outside of Boston though, perhaps we are blessed with the number of available options. I’d encourage you to search around a bit, perhaps there is a local symphony that would appreciate your support, and wouldn’t require the journey.</p>
<p>I agree with AlwaysAMom about live theater. </p>
<p>Back to symphonies, and some talk in other posts about attracting youth…my daughter has performed with several symphonies around the country (including AlwaysAMom’s local symphony, the Toronto Symphony) in an opera aimed at family audiences. Several symphonies have series aimed at youth audiences. This included the National Symphony at the Kennedy Center.</p>
<p>You could say the same thing about sporting events. That watching a baseball game on tv isn’t the same as watching it live. Yet millions watch baseball on tv instead of live, and baseball franchises make lots of money doing it, and fans are mighty happy. </p>
<p>I prefer live theater and live symphonies, don’t get me wrong. But travel, parking, etc can be a real hassle.</p>
<p>I agree, that’s why I live in the city, it’s nice to be able to walk or take public transportation to regular events. It’s a trade off though, it’s probably noisier than it would be if I lived in Kirkland, even. But when I lived in Kirkland I needed my car to get around too. </p>
<p>Perhaps carpooling with another couple would make the commuting more fun & you can share driving expense & hassle?</p>
<p>Of course they are a dying breed. Most children attend public schools with very little (if any) musical education. Unless a family is musically inclined, there is no tradition in the US of taking the kids to a concert in the way that there is for, say, a ball game. IMO, there will be always serious music in some big cities where there is support and financing for it. </p>
<p>A word about those streamed concerts shown in movie theaters: that’s how I really got to love opera, fairly recently. I’m sure it’s not like watching it at the Met. OTOH, those broadcasts also offer things you can’t get at the Met: like closeups, and interviews with the singers during intermissions. Where I live, most of the audience that goes to these concerts (they’re packed, by the way) is older. I’d like to think that’s because opera is a taste you develop, and youngsters aren’t up to it yet But I know better.</p>
<p>With the fabulous success of the “El Sistema” classical music program in Venezuela, and its imitation in other places, including the US, maybe this trend will start to reverse a bit.</p>
<p>My impression is that opera has undergone a surprising renaissance in recent years.</p>
<p>I don’t think this is limited to public school kids. I’ve known dozens of private school kids who are apathetic at best and sometimes even outright hostile towards formal music events because they associated them with forced classical music lessons, being around snobby fans of that genre…including obnoxious K-12 classmates, stifling formal dress code, upper/upper-middle class culture they’re rebelling against as teens/young adults, etc. There are also private school students…even those from the upper/upper-middle classes whose parents aren’t interested in music and see no need to push for their kids to have musical education of any sort. </p>
<p>That’s not to say the cut in the funding for the arts isn’t a serious factor. </p>
<p>On the contrary…my point above may be one serious symptom of those cuts…formal/classical music events & culture seems to be associated not only with the “older crowd”…but also the upper/upper-middle classes. </p>
<p>Quite unfortunate…especially considering I enjoy going to the Met on occasion now…but there was no way my family or I could have afforded even the cheapest tickets when I was a kid when our main priorities was paying the bills to survive.</p>
<p>^^^ yes, the costs are a huge factor, especially for those who need to come in from outlying areas, because you have to add parking and often hotel.</p>
But I know better.</p>