I would like to amplify what Deryk and Don have recently said, not so much
words but the general attitude, which I share.

Classical music is not doing so badly as we might think.  Is it as
popular as pop rock? No, nor should we expect it to be.  Refined tastes are
refined tastes.  The majority prefer a MacDonald's hamburger to a four-star
restaurant's fare.  They prefer Terminator II to, say, A Soldier's Daughter
Never Cries.  They prefer Danielle Steele to Dostoevsky.  They prefer the
morning cartoons to Picasso.  (Forgive me for my imperfect analogies).  Not
only is the more refined more cerebral, taking more effort to grasp, but
it also tends to be more expensive (which causes it to be all the more
daunting).  As one can expect.  Fine craft takes work, talent, expense...

Before we lament on the state of art in any field we should take a moment
to appreciate two amazing things:  A) that it exists for us to appreciate
at all!  and B) that we are among the minority who take the mental effort
to appreciate these things.  Then let us proceed to examine whether things
are really as bad as they seem.

Next, whether things are bad or not, which is out of the scope of my post,
nor which I am truly qualified to determine, I would make an admonishment
to all who are concerned about these things.  Examine oneself!  Say, things
could be better, and in what way can I make them so? Give your time or
money or vocal support to classical music.  If you are a musician, at
the very least play.  Promote it in your child's school, in local arts
organizations, in whatever.  Whatever way you can.  Offer scholarships for
talented students to study with better teachers than they could otherwise
afford.  Buy classical music for your friends (judging carefully what you
think they can digest)...  this has never failed me in raising the
appreciation of classical music by those around me.  Many are startled
at how much they like classical music.

Let us consider that as we are up to the intellectual challenges that the
music we love presents to us, we should also recognize that it requires
our support in order to flourish.  Give something to music that you cannot
necessarily see a direct 1:1 return to your own pocket for, and then you
will have really begun to do something more than complain.

I do not mean to point any fingers, to accuse anyone of being short in
their ratio of support to whining.  (I am sure there are many here whose
value for this ratio is undefined due to division by zero!) I simply wish
to offer a reminder that the life of classical music rests on our very own
shoulders as individuals, and the community is ever small enough to feel
the weight of one person's contribution.

Michael Cooper