Begone Doom-Meisters!

Gavin Borchert is tired of the deafening roar of doom and gloom about the state of classical music. “The audience is graying. Soon they’ll be dead, taking classical music with them unless they’re replaced, runs the conventional wisdom. But is this anything new? Why the panic? Was there some distant golden age when America’s concert halls were filled with teenagers? Isn’t classical music–or any art–something one grows into? Art rewards an attention span–it’s a game for adults. But the classical establishment would rather buckle under to our society’s market-driven credo: If white males aged 15 to 29 don’t want it, nobody gets it.”