The Young Are Supporting The Classical Arts

Here’s an article I found online, that perked my interest. Actually, I’ve seen what the article talks about personally.

They Grew Up on 15-Second Videos. Now They Sit Through 3-Hour Operas.

Over the past few months, I’ve attended National Symphony Orchestra concerts on a regular basis. Even though I’ve now retired from the music industry, I still like going to see other folks play music. I like just about all styles of music. Those that are not my taste, still get my respect. That’s why we have such a variety of music out there. It gives people choices based on their likes and dislikes.

Consequently, if you are a working professional musician, you have to be able to play all styles of music, and if you are playing something you don’t like, you still have to make it sound like you think it’s the best music in the world. When I was still actively playing, people used to ask me, “What is your favorite kind of music?” I’d tell them, “It all depends on who is writing the check.”

I’ve always enjoyed classical music. I was the weird kid that liked Beethoven and Brahms, as well as the Beatles. Even though we weren’t affluent, my father was a school teacher, my parents made the financial commitment, to finance my musical development. I started taking private drum/percussion lessons in the third grade, continued all the way through my senior year in high school, and then on to college to study Music Education.

After I left college, I started taking private lessons again in New York City. That’s when I fell in love with cities. I used to take the train into the city, and after my lesson, I would take the subway to different parts of the city, including the other boroughs, and just explore the various neighborhoods. Living in New York City, and working as a freelance musician, was my ultimate goal.

A couple of years later, I ended up in the US Air Force music program, culminating with twenty-four years, out of a twenty-six year career, in the Washington, DC, United States Air Force Band. After my retirement from the Air Force, I continued to play on a freelance basis, until I decided to stop playing due to health reasons. I never made it to New York, but Washington, DC, has been a wonderful second prize. I literally have no regrets.

It’s not just old people attending National Symphony concerts or Broadway shows. Yes, there are some of us geezers in attendance, but if you look around you see a lot of young people, dressed well, and acting like civilized human beings. I don’t remember seeing any nose rings, and/or hair color not normally found in nature, like you see at your typical outdoor street festival either. Not that there is anything wrong with nose rings, and/or hair color not normally found in nature. Whatever floats your boat.

I attended the opening night of the musical, “Chicago,” at the Kennedy Center’s opera house. I’d say that from what I saw, about three fourths of the audience, was made up of twenty-somethings, and thirty-somethings. Hearing some of their conversations during intermission, a lot of those young people are huge musical theater buffs. Looking around, there were some teenagers too, and yes, there were some of us old geezers.

At one concert by the National Symphony, composer Joe Hisaishi, who wrote the film score for the movie, “The Boy and the Heron,” as well as over one hundred other film scores, conducted a concert of his own music. When he walked on stage, the cheers from the young people, who made up by my guestimate, about ninety percent of the audience, reminded me of a rock concert in Madison Square Garden.

So what has made classical music so attractive to the generations younger than us geezing Boomers? It’s a desire for something beautiful, and an escape from the shallowness and negativity of much of the youth’s popular culture. Ok. We geezers need an escape from that too.

As far as opera, at the National Symphony’s concert on May 1st, called “Opera In Concert,” where the orchestra performed along with world-class vocal soloists, and the Washington Chorus, Puccini’s, “Il Tritico,” which is three one-act operas performed in concert form, there were more than a few well-dressed, well-behaved, twenty and thirty-somethings in the audience, enjoying a wonderful night of music.

As of this writing, the Kennedy Center’s future seems to be up in the air. At first glance, it seems to be in pretty good shape. If you look more closely however, you’ll see that there are a lot of maintenance issues that need to be addressed. I’ve been told that there is a mold problem backstage, leaky pipes, aging heating and AC systems, and holes in the concrete in the parking garage, that have contributed to more than one person twisting their ankles, walking from their cars to the elevators. I’ve seen those holes personally, and in the main foyer area, the edges of the thread-worn carpeting, are held down with duct tape. That’s another twisted ankle waiting to happen. You can only defer preventative maintenance for so long, before things really start to fall apart.

As of this date, the National Symphony has not announced their schedule for next season. There is speculation, that they will perform in multiple venues in the DC area. One suggestion was to move them back to DAR Constitution Hall, where they performed, before they moved to the Kennedy Center.

The Washington Opera moved to Lisner Auditorium, because Donald Trump put his name on the building, which has now been removed due to a judge’s order. Several artists cancelled their performances there, for the same reason. I could care less. Looking around at the last couple of performances, there were a lot of people, including a lot of young people, that could care less too. Then again, I didn’t see a lot of hair colors not found in nature, and nose rings either.