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.
Any form of classical music is made for youth.
Does it not seem as if Mozart's works become fresher and fresher the oftener we hear them?
I love symphonies. I love string sections.
I listen to Handel's vocal music, almost exclusively.
I love classical music and often listen to symphonies or opera in the morning.
It's not that people don't like classical music. It's that they don't have the chance to understand and to experience it.
Part of my mission is simply that: to bring the world of the arts, particularly classical music, closer to people so they don't feel that it is something remote that they have to specially prepare themselves for, or dress up for.
As far as I was concerned the important thing was that the music was getting the attention as well as me so it was always a great way to get more of the public to connect with classical music, and opera particularly.
