COMPOSER SABRINA PENA YOUNG | MUSIC TECHNOLOGY | FILM | CLASSICAL | OPERA

Changing the Culture: The Death of Classical Music Elitism? I am a member of the International Alliance for Women in Music , a music advocacy group open to all individuals that promotes contemporary music and scholarly research. We often have heartfelt discussions regarding gender, age, race/culture, and more in classical music, from celebrating when young students win a composition competition to frustrations with systems set in place that perpetuate elitism that plagues and sometimes kills classical music organizations today, as is evidenced by the high number of large classical music organizations folding.  We recently chatted about the high cost of arts competitions, the reasoning behind high entry fees, the validity of some festivals, the criminality of others, and how this affects gender, age, and the realities of women in music. I won't go into the details of the conversation, though if any of you are interested in these topics (male or female), I encourage you to joi...

Classical Music Magazine (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) Is classical music dead? With all of the negative press regarding music union contracts, faltering orchestras, cutting of music programs, and the seeming demise of classical music, I would like to offer a different perspective.  Before we can embark on answering the provocative question "Is classical music dead?" we must first address the very definition of classical music. After all, what is classical music?  If we exclaimed "All birds are dead!" but are incapable of identifying a penguin or ostrich as members of the bird family, then we have made a false statement based on our own biases about birds. If our definition of birds includes the requirement of flight, then both penguins and ostriches are not considered birds. In the same way, if "classical music" has a very definitive and narrow definition that excludes contemporary forms of media, music, and technology, as well as a limit to sp...