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Originally Posted by Tootsall What is happening in the marketplace that is causing the demise of so many professional orchestras?" (and the corollary question "What to do about it?") |
To just go ahead and answer that one, the demise is coming from a lack of interest and shorter attention spans. Also, the image of the orchestra isn't exactly a popular one either. Today's young generation (I shudder when I realize that I'm part of it) doesn't like orchestral music. They like rap, hard rock, and there are quite a few in the jazz camp. Why? Because it moves, it bounces, and is over in about 3 minutes. Orchestral pieces sometimes last twice as long. The current attention span of people my age is pushed to three minutes (I think I read somewhere that this could be blamed on video games, don't remember).
At the risk of getting flamed to death, I'm also gonna venture that the poor economy is part of the problem. People don't have as much money to spend on things like orchestra concerts.
Oh, and about the poor image thing. I posted on an A&M student forum about the Symphonic/Concert Bands Concert on Sunday (those of you in the area should come, it will be good). I can't post some of the things I got called. I happen to know some people down here who like the classical genre, but they don't want to admit it.
Just my take on the problem. I can't tell you how to fix, because mainly, I don't think it can.