A few months ago, I had the privilege of meeting with music students at Nazareth College in Rochester, New York. In preparation for the session, Professor Roy Stein had asked them to research and write about the theory that classical music is a dying art form. Here are all the things I forgot to say.
Dear Professor Stein,
Thank you for your nice note and for the invitation to meet your Music Business students at Nazareth College. Who knew that Japanese pop music on YouTube was so hot? I was glad to discover that your savvy students are listening to Miles Davis and Amy Winehouse on so many different platforms -- Pandora, Spotify, YouTube and iTunes. And radio, of course. Let’s not forget radio.
Thank you also for giving me a copy of “jumping karma trains,” the new release by yourindie pop band My Plastic Sun. I love it! It’s easy on the ears and edgy at the same time: lyrical, thoughtful, and fascinating in the variety of textures and instruments from track to track. It’s been spinning in my car stereo for weeks. Again, thank you.
When I met with your students to talk about my work on Classical 91.5 FM, I confess I was taken aback by their assumption that classical music is suffering a major decline. Please allow me to set the record straight. At the time I wasn’t thinking clearly and I got derailed on a passionate rant about cultivating the life of the mind and how life gets better and better with age.
Classical music is not dying. In fact, it has a surprisingly broad reach into the American public.
According to The Classical Music Rising Initiative, a nation-wide effort to strengthen classical music services, nearly 11 million Americans listen to classical music on public radio each week, 6.3 million to “all classical” stations and 4.2 million to mixed format stations. Sixty-six public media organizations offer an “all classical” broadcast service, operating over 150 stations and more than 75 Internet streams. The listening audience for classical music on the radio has been very stable over the past four years, with neither significant growth nor loss.
Some of the strongest classical music stations in the country (including WXXI-FM) are right here in New York State, reflecting the high quality of music education offered in schools and universities statewide.
Again, classical music on the radio is not dying. Not by a long shot. And neither is radio. Look at the ways people are getting their classical music:
Broadcast Radio = 75.3%.
Internet Radio = 13.6% (of which Pandora = 9.2%; Other = 4.4%); SiriusXM Satellite Radio = 11.1%
Mobile online radio listening on smartphones has expanded from 34% of the population (2011) to 57% (2016).
But broadcast radio is STILL the major source for music delivery and the most used of all audio platforms.
Your Nazareth College students also seemed to think that the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra is in a major decline. It’s true that RPO leaders keep a sharp eye on demographics and ticket sales, but the orchestra continues to be Rochester’s leading live band, so to speak, with a ten million-dollar budget and an annual audience, including broadcasts on WXXI, of more than 700,000 people. The future is fragile but bright. According to RPO President and Chief Executive Officer Ralph Craviso, single-ticket revenue increased 19 percent in 2015 from the previous season. All ticket sales in 2014-15 were up 6 percent.
Okay, I realize that by now your eyes are glazing over with all these numbers.
But please understand that classical music is not dying. It’s a living, breathing art form loved by millions of Americans. Or, in the words of the musicologist and pianist Charles Rosen, “The death of classical music is perhaps its oldest continuing tradition.”
Please extend an invitation from me to your students to show you around the WXXI studios on State Street anytime. My e-mail address is btremblay@wxxi.org and my phone number is (585)258-0371.
Thank you, again, for the chance to meet your students and to talk about the future of all the music we love.
Sincerely,
Brenda Tremblay
Morning host, Classical 91.5
