Average audience age 103? Where are all the 'young' people?

[Sophie]

I'm going to be age-ist here, but I was recently surprised and a bit saddened at the skewed age range evident at a major city concert venue - Saturday night performance. The music and venue were sensational, the ticket prices not out of this world (even for full price) - so where was all the young blood? I felt rather out of place even at my advanced age.
Opinions?
S

[Randolph]

Can anyone explain why the previous person's message is repeated when it can easily be read by scrolling back?

[Sophie]

I want this in Melbourne! Anyone out there from Opera Australia??

[Peter Tregear]

Sophie said:

I want this in Melbourne! Anyone out there from Opera Australia??

Well, they are about to appoint a new Artistic Director--should be part of her or his brief, most certainly.

[Peter Tregear]

BTW... If you don't want to have the post to which you are replying repeated, simply delete it--as a default MusBook includes it because it can be, in developing conversations such as this, difficult otherwise to know WHICH precise bit of text to which you are responding...

[sam saunders]

Yes, this is great. Seems to be the way forward. Cheap tickets and it doesn`t upset listeners who want a traditional atmosphere for listening. Don`t get me wrong, I do want young people to warm to "classical music", though I don`t see how to merge the two !!!!!!!!! Not sure that orchestras could or would do two sessions for the same programme though.

Best,Sam

Louise said:Re young people and Opera, the Royal Opera House in London presents Schools' Matinees during their seasons which are over-subscribed. Seats are about £6; a friend took a school group to Rigoletto recently and they all loved it. Everyone in the group was 18 or younger, they got seats in the third row of the stalls, it was a fantastic production, the singing was superb, they had a day off school, chocolates were handed out at the end - what's not to like?! And apparently the tenor's face was shining with joy at the ovation he received from a house full of enthusiastic teenagers. I would love to know if such experiences create the opera-lovers of the future.<</body>

[Phil Best]

I think the word contemporary has had its meaning altered in trems of the music scene. It can indeed become synonymous with "challenging" as Sophie said. But it does hold the key to the problem. I often think that people who visit art exhibitions would be naturally interested in classical music but very few of that group go to concerts. Putting on more new (contemporary) music which is not trying to reinvent the language (after a whole century of that, I think it's ok to move on!) where melody, harmony and rhythm are used in inventive ways but ways that the general public will understand is a good way to shift the perception of people who feel apathetic towards or even excluded by the usual classical concert format. I don't think that old classical music is generally inaccessible at all or that breaking people in gently is necessary. I really doubt that people would be more interested in a Strauss waltz than a Mahler Symphony. It's all about presentation and relevance. An art exhibition with an engaging theme and a mixture of new and old works will pull people in; rooms full of old masters are never so appealing. I also like the idea of speaking to audiences and providing them with interesting program materials. One of my particular wishes is that the internet will effect a change and generate a new audience. Television provides so little these days, which is a pity... The problem is that so many people just don't know how amazing classical music is, how it lifts the soul.

[Louise]

Here's a good idea - Take a Friend To Orchestra - and a cartoon to cheer us up!

[Louise]

Phil Best has the first part of a winning formula - add a concert to an Art Exhibition - well-presented by speaking to the audience, plus an attractively produced paper programme. Merge the arts in a gallery where there is some freedom to wander, observe and listen. There may not be the full attention of a concert hall, there may be some distraction for the audience and the players, but as a total experience it has much to recommend it.

[Martin Le Poidevin]

Louise said:

well-presented by speaking to the audience, plus an attractively produced paper programme.

I've done several concerts recently in which conductors have spoken to the audience - and I'll always do it at my recitals - in a sort of spoken programme note type way.

The reaction is always that the spoken parts are welcome. It makes people feel at home and included in the action, and gives them something immediate to concentrate on in the piece that's about to be performed. I guess it could be done badly, but it might be worth organisations thinking about appointing a good speaker/writer to come up with something that could be read out loud if the conductor's no good at it.

Obviously not suitable for a very formal concert, but for a bits-and-pieces concert or something more informal it almost always appreciated.

BTW I also agree with the rest of Louise's post!

[Sophie]

Phil and Louise - I like the concept of placing the music into some sort of visual art context (or vice versa). Being in amongst it is so much more engaging than being 500m from the stage in a large concert hall. I have always been a restless body in a concert situation, so being able to shift around sounds great. Wish I could have been a fly on the wall at some 17th and 18th c musical evenings - perhaps there was more fun going on than we're led to believe?
PS I feel an event forming.

[Sophie]

As a punter I agree with Martin that a presentation can be terrific, it can open up the music further than would happen if the listener were left to interpret on their own. The presentation needn't be aimed low either - that can be a bit cringeworthy - so yes, if the presenter is a talented performer too, all power to it.