Korea’s Ticket Price Problem

South Korea is prime territory for touring orchestras these days, with a seemingly insatiable classical music audience lining up for tickets in numbers that most Western ensembles would kill for at home. But the popularity of the form has led to an explosion in ticket prices – how does $260 for a seat at the New York Philharmonic’s concert sound? Or $400 for the Berlin Phil? And the numbers don’t actually add up: there simply aren’t enough music fans in Korea to justify the price spike. So who’s buying the tickets, and who’s getting shut out of the hall?