"The Last Generation to Broadly Love Classical Music May Simply Be Aging, Like World War I Veterans, Out of Existence"

"Now let’s look at classical concerts. Live classical music is less commercially viable than ever. Attendance per concert has fallen, according to Robert Flanagan, an emeritus professor at Stanford. But 'even if every seat were filled, the vast majority of U.S. symphony orchestras still would face significant performance deficits.' Live orchestral music is essentially a charity case. A Bloomberg story on the recent wave of orchestra bankruptcies (an unheard-of phenomenon outside of the U.S., says Flanagan) notes that by 2005, orchestras got more money from donations than from ticket sales. The New York City Opera, once hailed as the 'people’s opera,' filed for bankruptcy in October. If the 'people' want opera, they’ve got a funny way of showing it."


Mark Vanhoenacker in Slate contends that "[c]lassical music in America is dead."