will Classical music ever return to mainstream?

I can see that, I guess. I would never have thought I'd like the mandolin...but the way he plays it blows me away. Not a huge banjo fan either, but what BEla Fleck does is equally impressive. Both of them have recorded classical albums.

 

His playing is awesome. Gets me to almost like the mandolin.
I do have some of the classical and classical style songs and albums he's played on. I also have the banjo concerto and banjo with string quartet that Bela Fleck composed and played. Also have the concertos that Edgar Meyer composed and played, also have the Edgar Meyer's violin concerto that Hilary Hahn played. Also have Edgar Meyer's Bach cello suites played on a double bass. That's quite a talented bunch of bluegrass players there dipping their feet into classical music. Very neat. And a very neat way to help keep classical relevant and doing something new.

Chris Thile does have a point that classical music listeners and the audience at classical music concerts are a bit too staid. Being enthusiastic at a classical music concert means restraining that enthusiasm until the end when you can give a polite and reserved standing ovation. On the other hand, I do appreciate that I can go to a classical music concert and not be distracted by fans standing up, whooping and hollering, talking, taking cell phone pictures, and other behaviors that pass as normal at regular popular music concerts.

 

It's a double edged sword isn't it? While some want classical to be more popular, they want to keep it refined at the same time. I'm not a regular attendee at the symphony, but I assume that ticket sales are high at least in the major cities. That said I worry that some of the smaller markets will lose their orchestras if ticket sales drop significantly.

I've long been a proponent of teaching basic music appreciation in schools. Less as museum pieces or Dead People Music as Zappa said, but as living breathing art. Not just classical either, Jazz, Folk, Rock, Rap...everything together. Our kids need to have an understanding about all types of music.

 

Lute Music will...

 

With regard to the question of the thread, I would argue that there is something of a classical music boom these days -- with the caveat that orchestral music and opera are now too expensive to produce without a sponsor. Where do I see this supposed classical boom?

Decently selling new chamber music discs, many of them by Brooklyn composers and musicians (and their friends) but with plenty of crossover from the alt-music world, so what I would describe as post-minimal classical music with some rock and jazz elements. So, chamber music made by people who hang out with St Vincent, or Bryce Dessner (of the National), or Merrill Garbus (of Tune-Yards): these pop figures are high-brow art rock figures who get plenty of digital ink over at Pitchfork and they are pretty generous about boosting their friends and about collaborating with them. Elsewhere, you can think of the contributions made by Nico Muhly to Grizzly Bear's Vecketimest, or the contributions of Shara Worden (My Brightest Diamond) and Owen Pallett to David Lang's Death Speaks, or Sufjan Steven's post-Illinois experiments (and of course Illinois itself has its tributes to Steve Reich). John Zorn does some fabulous work at the intersection of jazz and classical. For that matter, you've still got Kronos Quartet, who started the whole thing, and they're still doing arrangements of Nine Inch Nails and Aphex Twin when they're not doing more traditional 20th century chamber music.

Three recommendations for new "classical" music for rock fans (I think these are all from the 2010s):









Or anything by Bang on a Can, who can seemingly do no wrong:



Incidentally, Bang on a Can also has a chamber rendition of Brian Eno's Music for Airports.

And then there are the Brits, who I know less about (Radiohead's Jonny Greenwood aside, my impression is that classical music is more strictly separated in the UK).

 

Well other than the artists sampling classical songs, I hope not!
Mainstream has a way of ruining things.

It's like seeing a bunch of thugs drinking beer on a beautiful hiking trail leaving trash everywhere.

 

One additional point: classical music is a pretty lively part of contemporary culture in Estonia, where I spend a lot of time. It would be a fairly normal thing for middle-class university students to attend classical concerts there. And middle-class ladies may well attend classical concerts on a summer night. I'm not talking about people with a special investment in high art or in music particularly: classical music is just an affordable good time there. So, the position of classical music within the broader culture is quite different there than it is in, say, Ohio USA. My impression is that the same is true in other Nordic and East-European countries. Cheers, RH

 

I definetly live in the wrong place..
The popular music here is damaging my brain...

 

My son is a sophomore in high school and plays in the chamber orchestra at his high school. Last night we went to see the District String Festival in which they performed along with the 7th grade orchestra and one of the elementary school orshestras. In all they had 176 string players. For the finale they all played together. In the school district we have 600+ string students. Promising, but will any of this bring classical back to the mainstream?

 

I do not know what main stream means is it part of popular culture, maybe not, but I do know that every concert I go to is full. I visit the Wigmore hall monthly for chamber music lucky if you can get a ticket.
In the last few years I have enjoyed Boulez, Ligeti, Mahler, Beethoven in full houses trying to get tickets. There are people who need to experience this.
The age range is vast, from teens to the elderly. That's really mainstream.