Classical music is dying?

October 8, 2025, 10:41 AM · Not her again!

Edited: October 8, 2025, 12:14 PM · I hadn't met this YouTube channel before, and unfortunately it came up with my phone's autotranslantation into Spanish...a deplorable AI habit that it has, though it's comforting to realize that it is too stupid to register bilingualism as a human ability.

Is her channel in the same vein as that which we discussed on another thread? By chance this afternoon I happened upon another classical music YouTube channel that struck me as positive, thought-provoking and encouraging: not anxiously hand-wringing about the death of the art. It's called Keep it Classical. The channel covers vocal, instrumental, theatrical music and spans 500 years. Here's an example in which the presenter (whose name I cannot find) introduces listeners to a context that was taboo until recently: LGBTQ+ in music. What do we think?

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=85fBNDfBapM&t=1s&pp=ygUVS2VlcCBpdCBjbGFzc2ljYWwgZ2F5

October 8, 2025, 12:01 PM · I am almost always disappointed when I go to a classical music venue that is near to me. Very often I am one of the, sometimes the only, youngest audience member (I am now 28).
I went to the opera with a friend on Friday last week, and I was surprised to see a fair number of young 'uns in the audience. But this was Puccini's Tosca, so that may be a contributing factor.
When you go into London to the Royal Festival Hall, Wigmore Hall, Royal Albert et al, there are a whole load more young people around. But as a friend pointed out to me, that is a lot of the time due to the number of universities/conservatoires that offer music programmes.
I don't think it's as bad as people have said previously, but a whole lot of work needs to be done. Utilising social media (not Facebook, as I feel like that's redundant for under-25's) for outreach I think is (at least part of) the way forward.

Edited: October 8, 2025, 12:20 PM · I fully agree Jake. I'm certainly not a young'un, but I notice the grey/balding element in some (not all) of the venues that I attend regularly. You are right that proximity to a conservatory or university makes a difference, which is encouraging. I started going to concerts and opera independently in my late teens, with university friends, and this was backed up by the music department's generous programme on campus. I never analysed the age distribution of the audiences back then!

October 8, 2025, 12:38 PM · People have been saying this for decades.

Reminds me of "bring out your dead!"

October 8, 2025, 1:20 PM · Has been dying forever (heard it since my teens, read about it in older books, it is still talked about, and it never ends.) Let us worry about liking what we like, leaving the doomsayers to their own sort of fun, "happy" times with YouTube.

Modern classical is not "super hot," but if you like it, who cares? Listen to what you love, not what is supposed to be pop. Even pop itself. Just do not care about all this doom and gloom.

Do feel that the concert scene must be nurtured better, and than Classical should be made to be more "friendly" to the young kids since school. Yes it's personal, but it helps of you grow alongside it. But even then, Classical is still here with us, and will never leave.

October 8, 2025, 1:39 PM · Thanks for that link Richard. I’ll try to open it. Here’s a link to the message that should be extolled the world over, especially in countries that are having multiple crises.
https://youtu.be/ePx7qNFs440?si=CpKgNyDMlw2aNztl
If classical music isn’t here to stay, it darn sure should be!

Edited: October 8, 2025, 1:58 PM · This is the very video I first saw posted by this YouTuber recently and didn’t even want to mention at the time. In fact, when I read that she had been mentioned in a thread here I began writing a comment in response to the video, only to realize that the video linked here was a longer and even more clickbait-focused one. I find it especially comical that the presenter suggests that her analyses are objective and deep as she then launches into a quagmire of unfounded opinions and bad information that barely scratches the surface of any substantive issues. I think it’s important for people to discuss the challenges faced by the institutions that present “classical” music and the musicians that are involved in its promulgation, but this type of video is a disservice to all audiences because it is at best a lot of nonsense and at worst something listeners might actually believe and promote without any thought. I’d much rather that classical music actually die than it be put into the hands of people who view it with such disdain.

It bothers me to see people who describe themselves as having “escaped” some imagined oppression, only to ride on its coattails by capitalizing on sensationalized stories about it. I know that the old saying that any press is good press is worth keeping in mind and that nothing is better for a fundraising campaign than to play to patrons’ fears that the things they value will disappear without their increased generosity, but the distinction for me is that that kind of sensationalism is great when aimed at the demographic that funds the arts, but when it’s aimed at a younger demographic that has had less exposure to the music than older ones, there’s a risk that it will turn away listeners before they venture into it, and that can have a lasting negative effect.

The idea that classical music is dying is a lupine alarm that has been oft repeated for decades. Yes, it’s true that major orchestras have been struggling, but the conclusion that it is due to a lack of interest among younger listeners is simply a conclusion reached without proper consideration. Many of those orchestras have folded because of scandal, mismanagement, or an inability to come up with programs that actually appeal to the listeners they need to fill seats. If interest in classical was truly dying, there would not be a surge in popularity of classical in streaming. When streaming numbers were released a year or two ago, it was found that classical music was the most popular of all genres.

The assertion that classical recordings sound so bad is also a mind bogglingly ridiculous one. Many of the old recordings are the gold standard for recorded sound even though the recording technology has gone through seismic changes in the last century. As modern trends emerge, music is increasingly electronic, which lends itself much better to compressed formats like mp3 that are popular for file sharing to minimize space at the major sacrifice of sound quality. Now that autotune and quantization are commonplace, even recorded vocal tracks are essentially digitized to the point that they sound somewhat robotic. If you want something that really sounds pure and natural, you have no choice but to look backward. It’s no surprise that old recordings are becoming increasingly popular among younger listeners who become tired of music that sounds artificial. A number of musicians have found almost overnight success by bucking the trend of computerized music by recording tunes or songs in their backyards with acoustic instruments.

October 8, 2025, 1:55 PM · I agree Adalberto. Enjoy what you like regardless. I went to see Tosca on Friday, Saturday night I was having a great time with Lady GaGa at the O2.
The thing that encouraged me quite a bit is that there is a young lad who is a student at the RAM who is a dedicated classical viokin student, but his Instagram story was full of his time also at GaGa on Saturday. It is certainly possible to dabble in both worlds!

October 8, 2025, 1:58 PM · Further to your point Rich, I would argue that something that turns off a lot of people from going to classiale events is a lack of incentive. Wigmore Hall for example offer free tickets for under 25's I think, and £5 tickets for anyone 25-35.
I think those sorts of incentives would do wonders especially if younger people are concerned about the cost

October 8, 2025, 4:05 PM · I've heard someone complain about the grey/balding/barely walking aspect - how it was already bad thirty years ago and didn't get any better. But then we decided that it's likely that much of the grey, balding and barely walking audience from thirty years ago probably doesn't attend concerts anymore, so there must be a steady influx of new grey and balding people.

October 8, 2025, 4:10 PM · Esther ...your analysis of new grey/balding influx is definitely true in my case!!

Edited: October 8, 2025, 6:13 PM · (I think I got this Tchaikovsky quote right) "Music is not illusion. It is rather revelation. Its triumphant power is that it reveals to us beauties we find nowhere else, and the apprehension of them is not transitory, but a perpetual reconcilement of life."

Any art form as music which is so inherently, universally, and meaningfully at the spiritual core of being human will not disappear.

October 8, 2025, 6:16 PM · Maybe it has been the case for a very long time, but even more now and one of the big reasons for it is because many classical musicians insist on performing contemporary/atonal music, electronic music and so on. They know that no one likes it, but they insist on forcing it, saying that people are just not "educated" for it yet. All that repertorie is giving a bad ideia of classical music to the younger generations. I know this is hard to take for the snobs, but it's the plain truth.

October 8, 2025, 6:41 PM · If you watch old Heifetz or Oistrakh videos you'll notice the audience has mostly middle-aged folks, say, 50 years old. Now we notice they're a lot older. But the life expectancy in 1950 was a LOT shorter than it is today. People are going to the orchestra in their 70s because they're still alive. The other thing you'll notice about the old videos of Heifetz concerts is that every person in the audience is white. Finally, these days educated professionals (presumably the target audiences of symphony orchestras) do not have time to go to concerts. The expectation now is work, 24/7. My thirty-something colleagues don't even have hobbies any more aside from physical fitness.

Regarding contemporary pieces being thrust upon audiences, probably musicians feel some obligation to introduce the music of more recent composers to the public. I've been to a number of recitals and concerts where, amidst 90-120 minutes of "real" classical music, there might be a 10-15 minute selection that is more itchy-and-scratchy. Often it's right before the intermission. Then, during the intermission, that's what everyone's talking about -- whether they liked it or not, what they liked about it or didn't, so I would say "mission accomplished."