Stereotypes might have us believe that the classical audience is typically older, whiter and richer. How true is this?

According to research into the global distribution of classical music listeners conducted by Statista in 2018, 29% of audiences for live classical concerts worldwide were under the age of 35, with 4% aged 16 – 19. So, whilst it’s true that the majority of classical listeners were aged 55 and over, it might be pleasantly surprising to see that nearly a third of the global audience are – at least according to this study – ‘millennials’. A whopping third of the global classical audience were born after the invention of the World Wide Web. These numbers are reflected by several ensembles I’ve spoken with; 29% of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra’s mainstream concert audience are under 25, and nearly a quarter of attendees of the Manchester Collective’s recent tour, The Oracle, were under 35. Whilst most organisations tell me their core audience is indeed beyond 50 – as these numbers still illustrate – perhaps we should redefine our understanding of just how small a ‘minority’ youth might be within this. 

Royal Liverpool Philharmonic - Photo credit: Gareth Jones

When it comes to overall audience size and growth, the numbers are not necessarily encouraging. Zooming in on the UK, the funding body Arts Council England (ACE) conducted a thorough survey of adult engagement with music in England in the 2014/15 season. ‘Taking Part’ found that there was a significant fall in attendance of classical concerts; just 8.3% of adults in England attended classical gigs in the 2005/6 season – an already alarmingly-low figure – and this had fallen to 7% by 2014/15. The proportion of English adults who attended an opera fell in the same period from 4.4% to 3.7%. Whilst other ‘specialist’ genres saw a decrease too, it was not as dramatic: jazz attendance dropped from 5.6% in 2005/6 to 5.2% in 2014/15. This suggests that not only is classical concertgoing a minority preference, but that it is in decline.

It’s not for want of trying. Look at English National Opera (ENO). They describe themselves as ‘the opera house for everyone’, and present a compelling range of community projects, youth discounts and broadcasts alongside their English-language stage productions. 156,000 people take part in their learning and participation programmes every year, whilst 2.2 million people saw their work through broadcasts in the 21/22 season. ENO are masters of presenting opera in unexpected ways and places, not simply expecting audiences to come to them. I think of ENO Breathe, where vocal lessons have been used to help 2000 people suffering from long COVID; the opera house now partners with 85 NHS (National Health Service) Trusts across England. I think of ENO’s drive-in productions during the pandemic, where audiences sat in their cars whilst enjoying Puccini. I think of their free tickets to under 21s, with more than 7000 given through the current season so far. This means many more – and many younger – people are trying opera for the first time; as of March 2023, more than 60% of their audiences were booking a ticket for an ENO production for the first time. That is massive: half of an entire audience had never been there before. Although classical audience attendance might be in overall decline, the story at ENO suggests people are more than willing to give opera a go. ENO proves the classical audience, will and invention remain as strong as ever. 

London Coliseum Auditorium - Photo Credit: Karla Gowlett

Is the age question even a problem? In mainland Europe, the Lucerne Symphony Orchestra’s Numa Bischof Ullmann is not alarmed by the fact the majority of their audience is over 50: “there are clear reasons for this. Classical music has always been something you need to take time to grow in to. The more you know about it, the higher the degree of appreciation and fascination. Also, retired people have both the time and means. This has always been like that and will remain like that.” Whilst Bischof acknowledges that “the biggest challenge we face is dwindling understanding of classical music, which can be seen in education, politics, the corporate world and the family home”, he remains optimistic, since the fundamental power and importance of an orchestra is unchanged. “A quality orchestra makes everybody happy and proud. An orchestra is a social umbrella; there is space for everyone. Look at our orchestra, which contains more than 20 nationalities. The best of the best.” Orchestras increasingly reflect the multinational and multicultural world we live in, and it could be argued that the very existence of so many ensembles today suggests vibrancy and viability.

What might keep an audience away from a classical performance? Cost is certainly prohibitive in learning an instrument, but perhaps not in sampling a live concert. The Audience Agency reported on classical audiences in England between 2014 and 2016, surveying 113 venues, orchestras and ensembles; they found that the average price paid for a ticket by one-time bookers was £19.41. Compare this to musical theatre: in 2022, The Stage found that the average lowest-priced ticket to a West End show was £22.56. One of my frustrations is the assumption that classical performances are uniformly expensive, when a.) there are countless discount schemes on offer, and b.) so many of the other cultural activities engaged with can be eye-wateringly pricey. The Stage research found that, by 2022, the price for top-tier tickets to see West End shows had risen by 21% since the pandemic, to an average highest ticket price of £140.85. Some tickets to Cabaret on the West End reached the dizzy heights of £303.80. A balcony seat to see Adele in Las Vegas last year set some people back £650; that was the ‘cheap’ option. Sure, the Royal Opera House has seats for its upcoming production of Aida priced at £230, but tickets start at £11. Every cultural event of any kind has a range of ticket options, and we must remember we are paying to see the best of the best. Whilst aspects of classical music are indeed depressingly pricey – think of the ridiculous £119 charged for an ABRSM Grade 8 exam – the idea that classical music is uniformly more expensive than other genres is not true.  

Royal Opera House - Photo Credits: Sim Canetty-Clarke

This does, however, point to another major challenge: competition. We live in a noisy world with free time that’s increasingly full of options. Indeed, when classical music is not enjoying the mainstream visibility it used to – with newspaper column inches cut and social media algorithms targeting what you already know and love – it’s little wonder audiences might be declining. 

Then there’s the elephant in the room: music education. I attended a state school in South London that, whilst encouraging my own musical interests, simply did not have the resources to develop this more extensively themselves: for a school of nearly 2000 pupils, there were just 2 full-time music teachers. All too often, the onus is on the students themselves to pursue their musical passion and make it into a career, or on wealthy parents who can subsidise their child’s musical studies outside of school hours.

But all is not lost. My gateway into classical music was a series of free-to-enter initiatives run by British ensembles. My first experience of composing for an orchestra came thanks to the ROH Fanfare project, where ten state school students wrote a fanfare that was recorded by the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House under Sir Antonio Pappano. My piece was piped through the House to call audience members to their seats throughout the season, and it spurred me on to continue writing for orchestras; within two years I had composed for the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic and Bournemouth Symphony. Encouragement is priceless. It can be seen everywhere; the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra welcomes over 17,000 children and teachers from 250 schools annually as part of the In Harmony programme. Since 2007, New York’s Metropolitan Opera has run its HD Live in Schools Scheme, transmitting opera in real time and in high definition to schools across America; it now reaches 66 districts in all 50 states, with their operas seen by 175,000 young Americans.  The will – and the young people – are there.

The Metropolitan Opera - HD Live in Schools

Classical music is, in many ways, booming right now. As those live streams demonstrate, there are plenty of opportunities to come across the genre in unexpected places. This season, the Met will broadcast ten live performances to over 2000 cinemas across more than 70 countries. Elsewhere, California’s Vitamin String Quartet brought the chamber music sound to a mass audience when their recordings were featured in the Netflix hit, Bridgerton; the ensemble have clocked up over one billion streams and 1 million physical unit sales. Likewise, consider the cross-genre collaborations taking place on an-ever-increasing scale: pianist Lang Lang’s latest album sees him reimagine hit songs from Disney films; six-time Grammy-winning jazz trumpeter and film composer Terence Blanchard has made his Met Opera debut, becoming the first black composer to have an opera played there; classical composer Judith Weir, musicals master Andrew Lloyd Webber and film regular Patrick Doyle are all contributing new music to the Coronation of Britain’s King Charles III in May. Minds and doors have arguably never been more open to classical music.

Perhaps we need to redefine ‘classical audience’. After all, we don’t talk about a ‘pop audience’; these genre labels are broad umbrella terms for such a range of music, and nor can we define an audience so easily. Colleagues tell me the bulk of their audiences stick to what they know; those who attend ‘mainstream’ orchestral concerts – a Rachmaninov concerto, say – won’t be found in the contemporary music gig, nor the early music scene. Just as ‘classical’ and ‘pop’ are catch-all terms, so is the word ‘audience’. 

With my radio presenter hat on, the classical audience is broad. In 2019, Bauer Media – a company whose portfolio of radio stations and magazines reaches over 22 million UK adults – launched a brand new national classical music station, Scala Radio. The fact that a major European media organisation willingly ploughed huge resources into launching a new classical station speaks volumes about the predicted audience for classical music. Look at Classic FM, Scala’s commercial competitor; in February 2023, they recorded 5 million weekly UK listeners, consistently enjoying the ninth or tenth highest reach of any UK radio station (pop and rock ones included).

We shouldn’t be disheartened. From vocal-medical programmes to cinema relays and new radio stations, classical music remains as inventive and relevant as ever. The challenge is and always has been communication, visibility and education; to normalise classical music so that it is a part of everyday life. This is already happening in cinemas, streaming, in community projects and beyond… But how much of this is news even to those who work within the profession? I’m constantly surprised to learn about ticket discount schemes, competitions, digital offerings and charities. This proves the dots are not always joined. Can we ever shout loud enough? 

There is always more to discover, but perhaps that’s the reason why I remain highly optimistic for the future of classical. When something is so vast, so broad, so international, it can only mean opportunity. There’s something for everyone, and there can and will always be more. We have the ultimate treasure trove to share and shout about, but must never be passive; classical music has been created out of ingenuity and tenacity, and that same spirit will inform its future.

Jack Pepper (b.1999) is a British composer, broadcaster and writer. 

 www.jackpeppermusician.com

----------

References:

1. Statista (2019) Distribution of classical music listeners worldwide as of the 4th quarter of 2018, by age group. Available at: https://www.statista.com/statistics/1021633/classical-music-fans-worldwide-age/#statisticContainer (Accessed: 18 July 2023)

2. Arts Council England (2016) Taking Part Survey 2014/15. Available at: https://www.artscouncil.org.uk/sites/default/files/download-file/Music_profile_2014_15.pdf (Accessed: 18 July 2023)

3. The Audience Agency (2017) National Classical Music Audiences | An analysis of Audience Finder box office data for classical music events 2014-2016. Available at: https://www.theaudienceagency.org/resources/report-classical (Accessed: 18 July 2023)

4. The Stage (2022) The Stage ticketing survey 2022: top prices surge 20% from pre-pandemic levels. Available at: https://www.thestage.co.uk/news/the-stage-ticketing-survey-2022-top-prices-surge-20-from-pre-pandemic-levels(Accessed: 18 July 2023)

5. The Metropolitan Opera (2023) HD Live in Schools. Available at: https://www.metopera.org/discover/education/hdschools/ (Accessed: 18 July 2023)