When I start planning a trip in North America, I do a quick search of the city’s symphony orchestra site. Every single one of them has some under-30 program to get cheap tickets. The fact that ever orchestra has one indicates that there is some student-program flu going around amongst the music directors or there is some systematic reason that the under-30 demographic need to be targeted. As you may expect, it’s the latter!
I think that most people know that there is little interest in Classical music amongst the young people. And if people aren’t interested, they’re not going to shell out $40 – $100 for a ticket now, or later. In the past, people have grown into liking Classical music. I guess they spend too much time at the dentist or waiting on the phone. I always thought that the student programs aim to hasten the movement and get patrons paying the real ticket fees sooner. But maybe that isn’t even the case. The New Yorker published the results of a survey which found that Generation X-ers were not starting to attend to the classical performances even though previous generations eventually did.
Of course it’s too soon to tell, maybe Gen Xers need to get older before they start peaking (some generations peaked in their 70s!), but some how I doubt it. There are too many distractions in this age to fragment our attention and the orchestra will find it difficult to maintain a consistent turnout regardless of whether they “hook” us early.
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