In Friday’s (11/8) “Get Schooled” blog in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution (Georgia), Harrison Russin writes, “I’m a graduate student studying classical music, and some of my family and friends think I am out of my mind…. Though universities are home to young people and many forms of music, classical music remains somewhat separate on many campuses, as it is in the wider society. The titanic length of a 60- or 70-minute-long symphony simply demands more investment from listeners than the simple three-minute arc of Carly Rae Jepsen’s ‘Call Me Maybe.’ Its musical vocabulary feels antiquated to many young ears…. Still, classical music … offers an emotional, harmonic and rhythmic range that no other music can match, from the pathos of Tchaikovsky to the sarcasm of Mahler.… The truth is that classical music is likely to continuing feeling distant to many Americans. It even feels off-limits most of the time to me, who attends concerts wearing sneakers and a flannel shirt. So why do I choose to devote my life to this subject? It’s because … it still pulsates with life and remains capable of changing lives. I know I am not alone in this devotion, nor am I embarrassed to embrace it.”
Posted November 8, 2013
