Classical Music, Aging Audiences, and the Emerging Demographic Racial Gap

I had come across an old (May 17, 2007) New York Times piece by Sam Roberts yesterday while doing some searches for the Aging Audience of Classical Music issue. The piece, titled "New Demographic Racial Gap" is outlining the age gap between the dominant majority in the US and the [still growing] ethnic minorities. To …

Are Orchestra Musicians Replaceable?

Drew McManus pointed out a piece written by Michaela Boland which had some interesting quotes by Greg Sandow with whom I don't necessarily agree on many points though he is one of the critics of the current status quo of Classical Music in the US. Among the orchestras that have shut their doors and dismissed …

Too Many Notes, too few orchestras

While reading the comments to a post by Drew McManus that I mentioned in my previous post, I came across a reference to a post that drew had written about the issue of having too many groups offering the same thing in a metropolitan area. While Drew disagrees than in general there may be too …

“…he has no European blood in his veins to make sense of our European repertoire…”

The quote in the title is from a comment made by a poster to a recent article in Slate about the Boston Symphony Orchestra's current search for a new conductor now that maestro James Levine will be leaving.  The full quote is: A few years ago the Boston Globe wrote an article about a whispering …

“Eurocentrism? We Aren’t The World” by Jon Pareles

Can't believe this was written over twenty years ago: http://www.nytimes.com/1989/04/23/arts/pop-view-eurocentrism-we-aren-t-the-world.html excerpt: What does this have to do with music? Plenty. Music, popular and classical, is a potent cultural symbol, one that arouses visceral reactions as well as rational ones. It speaks to its listeners' sense of place and history, and to deep-seated beliefs about the …