As someone who grew up in a household where classical music was as much a part of our life as eating and breathing, I would have to say that classical music isn’t dead at all! My late father was an orchestral musician whose career spanned more than 60 years. As a child, I took music lessons, loving every bit of it. My brother and sister took lessons, and their children also took lessons.
Orchestras in major cities all over the world have subscription series, and the concerts are by and large, well attended. Many major cities have opera companies as well. The opera companies also sell subscriptions series. There too, people buy tickets. Classical soloists still have very active and prolific careers, and orchestral musicians still have their jobs – even though the economy is hurting.
There are countless music institutes and schools for young children. The Interlochen Arts Academy has been around for years. The National Music Camp in Interlochen Michigan is the oldest camp of that type in the country. There are music camps all over this country and the world.
Summer music festivals abound throughout this country and in Europe. In Salzburg, Austria, music is such a vital part of life, of the town and of the lives of the people who come to hear the music that they have several festivals throughout the year. One of them takes place around the time of Mozart’s birthday. People purchase tickets for that festival many years in advance.
In the United States, there is the Ravinia Festival in Illinois, Music Mountain in Falls Village Connecticut, the Berkshire Festival, the Tanglewood Festival, the Marlboro Music Festival, Saratoga Music Festival, Spoleto Music Festival, a festival in Santa Fe, New Mexico and music schools all over the country have summer programs. These programs are geared towards young men and women who seek careers in classical music.
How can classical music be dead if young men and women are still opting to go to music schools and conservatories? I went to a music conservatory. I have a degree in music history. Young children still take music lessons, and those lessons are more often geared towards classical instruction than anything else.
The study of classical music helps school children acquire greater discipline. It teaches them to focus, to stick with things and to work hard at something. Children who continue to take music lessons have an easier time getting into colleges.
People who specialize in producing entertainment and educational material for young infants have created Baby Mozart and similar DVDs. Whatever the intent, listening to classical music can be very calming and soothing for infants. It is calming and soothing for adults.
Sales for classical music CDs hasn’t ceased. And just as those CDs haven’t ceased, neither have the recording sessions that musicians are hired to play for in order to make the production of CDs possible in the first place.
Classical music may not be the most “stylish” or hip type of music for many people. But it has weathered the test of time so successfully that it easily surpasses any other type of music. People will always have different tastes in music, but the one type of music that has endured, regardless of circumstances, time or anything else is classical music.
Many of the young men and women I went to music school with are pursuing professional careers. Some have landed permanent orchestral jobs, while others do freelance work. The depend on classical music for their very livelihoods every day, and for them, as for me, classical music will never be dead. The composers are dead, but that doesn’t matter. The music is alive in our minds, in our hearts and in our ears.
Tags: Classical Soloists, Interlochen Michigan, Saratoga Music
