Beethoven sucks!

Just kidding. His music is heavy metal if you play it with an electric guitar. So this is actually mildly upsetting to moi.

In this week’s column, I mention an alarming graph that shows a comprehensive downward trend in generational participation in classical music. Here is the graph, in all its scary glory. It comes from the League of Orchestras’ Audience Demographic Research Review, using data from the National Endowment for the Arts and a further analysis by the McKinsey company. You can see clearly how various generations experienced a bump in participation as they got older. The so-called Generation X, however, has yet to exhibit an upward spike as it moves into middle age. Every classical organization in America should print out this graph, pin it on the bulletin board, and ponder what is to be done. If the light-gray line doesn’t reverse directionin the next ten years, those organizations may begin to fold.