Rhiannon Giddens Quotes

Everything is so fast, and everybody wants to be stars and stuff, they're taking the music out of the schools and kids wanting to play instruments, that whole piece of it is gone. Nobody is taking responsibility to push these kids to want to do it. Nobody's reaching their hand out to it, and it's pretty sad.

We need to take music out of the ivory tower - both for musicians and for the public. Otherwise, classical music will not survive the 21st century.

We need to bring music to the people, even to those who normally do not listen to classical music.

This is a cause that musicians can take to heart because one of our main reasons for being is to share our music with other people, and this takes us to people who probably wouldn't otherwise get to hear music on quite this level.

There's so much beautiful music in the world, and the kids are getting robbed.

The majority of the high schools and the public schools in N.Y.C. don't even have band programs. Hip-hop in a lot of ways is an outgrowth of a lack of instruments and a desire to play music, so we can't really fault the kids for that.

People just want to have access to all of the world's music.

The role of an orchestra in the 21st century isn't just playing, it's about developing future audiences and performers.

No, I don't know how to get young people to start listening to jazz again. But I do know this: Any symphony orchestra that thinks it can appeal to under-30 listeners by suggesting that they 'should' like Schubert and Stravinsky has already lost the battle.

Whenever we can, we try to talk to students. If I can, I'll invite kids from a school to a sound check and take questions from them. I want to show them it's cool to play the trombone. Kids are influenced by what's accessible to them. It's hard for kids to be introduced to music other than what they see on TV and video.

A lot of people don't know about music, but buy records. A lot of people that know about music can't afford to buy records.

People are people, and I get a bit annoyed that the music business only focuses in on the big metropolises. I find that people that don't live in big cities are just as likely to enjoy music as people that do live in big cities.

Give ordinary folk the chance to buy the same things as rich people.

With Australian audiences, there's a certain level of education - as far as how much access and exposure they have to music from various genres. So when you do 'Big Day Out' and there are all these different musical acts, you see the same people in your crowd that were there for a completely different artist.

We have to go and show these people what classical music is. We say sometimes that classical music has a small audience, but it's because people don't have the chance to be closer to it.

Maybe I'm a dreamer, but I think the ordinary guy has just as much right to say 'This is a good song' as somebody who is in the music business.

I don't want kids listening to my music thinking it's for their parents. I want them to feel it's theirs.

I have never been a believer that nice clothes should only be for people with money.

What worries me are these so-called radio stations with program directors who don't play all the different flavors of hip-hop. They should play the old with the new, 24/7, 365 days a year. A lot of these program directors are just jiving around and not playing all the good music for the people.

The consolidation of the music business has made it difficult to encourage styles like the blues, all of which deserve to be celebrated as part of our most treasured national resources.

Music is too important to be left to professionals.

I think Charley Pride has been one of the best things to happen to country music, to prove it belongs to everybody.

I'm very pro presenting the best music I can to the widest audience possible.

Instrumental music is increasingly marginalized and there's just no outlet, there's no venue for it, in terms of media.

I think I can only help to expose percussion to all sorts of people. The balance between the lighter and more serious side is important.