In the New York Times on Monday (6/3), Bruce Ridge, chairman of the International Conference of Symphony and Opera Musicians, responding to a May 13 column by James Oestreich and a May 27 letter to the newspaper entitled “Classical Music Is Dying,” writes, “Reports of the death of classical music have been greatly exaggerated, to the point of tedious cliché. [Orchestra Nova San Diego] did indeed fail,” but in the same city “another orchestra, the San Diego Symphony, thrives…. Often in classical music there is a tendency to rely on the banality that failure is inevitable, rather than examine the reasons for success or failure of a particular institution. Concert halls aren’t ‘half full.’ The Utah Symphony ticket sales have risen 23 percent, the St. Louis Symphony saw its highest ticket sales and paid attendance for its December concerts at Powell Hall in more than a decade, and this season the Buffalo Philharmonic sold its most subscriptions ever. Just this year, the number of students attending Cleveland Orchestra concerts doubled.… Conversations to ensure future success cannot be held when self-fulfilling headlines declare such efforts futile…. Success can be realized by ending the erroneous prophecies of failure. The true story to be told is how resilient orchestras have proved to be.”
Posted June 6, 2013
