Let me begin with the good news. Over the past decade, classical music—Western, dead-white-European-male music, if you will—has become more popular in America than ever. The evidence of this popularity is to be found everywhere. There are more composers, more performers, more new works being written, more new and old works being played, and more students studying to be performers. There are more symphony orchestras, more opera companies, more professional choruses, and more large music schools. Audiences for live concerts and operas have been steadily increasing for many years; it is also demonstrably true that the so-called revolution has resulted in the sale of extra millions of classical-music recordings to millions of music listeners both young and old. Along with all the purchases of CDs (and video cassettes and laser discs), of course, go sales of billions of dollars’ worth of new and newer hi-fi hardware, some of which...

 

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