Classical Music; Op. 2008

Music in Economic Times of Distress

Source

QUESTION FOCUS: Is the “Classical music crisis” just a hoax?

SUMMARY: This article discusses the problems the classical music economy faced in 2008 during the recession. The author, Leon Botstein, a swiss conductor and musician, deemed that people should not be worried about the future of classical music. The primary reason this notion exists is because of the economic distress that occurred in 2008. Botstein says the first reason he does not believe in any classical music crisis is because “there was never a reason to doubt the relevance of [it] and its traditions.” Thankfully, there is no decline in the amount of music students or those seeking music education.

The second reason the article pointed out not to be concerned about classical music organizations is because “the criterion for the worth of [it] should not be the capacity to draw mass audience.” The quality of arts organizations should not be determined by success in making profits. These cultural institutions show their success with “earned income” by means of ticket sales.

ANALYSIS: It is usually important for a source of information to be recent. The more recent, the more relevant the article is to your current life; however, I purposely wanted to chose an older article that faced the economical situation of classical music in 2008 to compare it to 2015. While researching articles for my topic, a lot of them regarding a “classical music crisis” were published during a recession. A recession is a temporary economic decline. In 2008, the worldwide financial market was overwhelmed with a large fall.

The article mentioned that many music institutions were having trouble making profits through sales tickets during the recession. Looking at symphonies and operas now, that seems to not to be the case. I find it hard to get tickets to concerts because they have a higher demand and often sell out. When finances are threatened, culture is neglected, simply, because it is not as important as other situations during times of economic distress. It makes me hopeful for the future of classical music that it is not as deep in a crisis as it was during 2008.

FURTHER RESEARCH:
This article was about classical music in economic times of distress, thus, I will do my next post in during times of economic growth.