“Kent Nagano recently revealed his mantra for programming classical music: ‘the status quo has no meaning,’ ” writes Michael San Gabino on Wednesday (3/16) at Chicago classical radio station WFMT. “In anticipation of his Chicago appearances [during the Montreal Symphony’s U.S. tour this month] he spoke about how challenging the status quo has made the MSO’s audience one of the youngest in North America…. ‘It’s really no mystery,’ Nagano admitted. ‘Classical music represents exceptional quality … To somehow think that a member of the public might not be as sensitive to classical music because it is his or her first experience is not true.’ … Nagano credits the Montréal Symphony’s Pierre Boulez concert cycle a few seasons ago as the catalyst for welcoming younger audiences to the concert hall … [and] believes taking programming risks can pay off in the long run. ‘Because of the Boulez initiative, we started a trend in Montréal that began to lower the age of the average audience member. Now, we have one of the youngest audiences in North America, and we look at that with enormous care. It opened doors to a whole new sector of the public that we hadn’t reached before.’ ”
Posted March 17, 2016
