Supposed ‘experts’ always confuse lots of those who attend classical music concerts in Orange County and elsewhere as regards what and who the music is for. An article in a newspaper claimed the music is for only the few moneyed elites, and not all. The paper, which always championed the music in the past, seems to have fallen back on the old tired trope that the music is inaccessible and elitist – and to stress the point the (anonymous) author of the article chose the proms as the foremost example of this.
The Proms festival
The proms happens to be the most accessible, non-elitist, and democratic festival of this music there is. Not just can you pick a ticket up for an affordable price and this get access to some among the greatest orchestras and musicians the world has to offer, there’re affordable seats inside the auditorium, and each concert gets broadcasted on BBC Radio3, thus you can then listen at home. If that isn’t accessible, then what is?
In general terms
Generally, tickets for concerts offering this kind of music are a lot cheaper than football matches and pop festivals/gigs. Even opera which is always tediously wheeled out as the example of how elitist this kind of music can be, is quite affordable with venues such as the Royal Opera House selling tickets for less than twenty Euros, and the secret seat scheme of ENO where you pay much less than thirty Euros and could even end up in a hundred Euros seat in the dress circle’s front row at a great classic concert. Meanwhile, the partnership between Wigmore Hall and ClassicFM offers those under thirty the chance to purchase tickets for only five Euros, and the ticket scheme of Cavatina Trust offers young individuals free entry to more than one hundred concerts around the country annually.
What the article overlooked
With its obsession with privilege and elitism, the article overlooks the original reason why,the majority of individuals engage with this type of music. At its very best, the music surely possesses the power to transport one to places that he never even thought possible, for a couple of hours at the barest minimum, freeing our imagination and getting us out, for a couple of hours at least, from our ‘everyday’. The music puts you in touch with the complete range of human emotions – as people who write/wrote it, whether they’re dead or living composers of every color/gender, are/were human as well and they share our desires and hopes, joys and fears. For some individuals, this genre of music offers them solace, therapy, as well as comfort (and let us not just snobbishly dismiss the relaxing, therapeutic benefits that the music offers); it excites and uplifts, thrills and energizes.
In conclusion, this music genre still suffers an image problem and its being associated with privilege, a belief that you must possess specialist knowledge to appreciate or ‘understand’ it, and that the customs and etiquettes of opera and classical music concerts in Orange County or elsewhere, are off-putting and confusing, remains an issue for those who seek to encourage more individuals to engage with this amazing art form. Some articles like the piece in the newspaperaren’t helping.