Jee-Sun Huh started an interesting thread:

>Just wondering how you guys started enjoying classical music the way you
>do today.

The operative phrase here for me is "the way you do today".  As with many
respondents, I can't really remember a time I didn't know at least some
classical music.  Frankly, I think it's fairly ubiquitous, at least in
popular culture.  From cartoons to car ads to movie and TV soundtracks,
it's hard not to be exposed to at least a few things.  I think that the key
thing is that I was always interested in music.  Any music.  Popular music
of the mid-60s:  rock and roll, Motown, Sinatra, Mathis, even Kostelantez
and Coniff, all dominate my earliest memories.  We'd sometimes spend
summers in Oklahoma with my Grandmother, and radio there had little more
to offer than country & western and cowboy songs.  When I was 10 I would
secret a transistor radio under my pillow so I could listen instead of
sleep, much to my parents consternation.  This was mostly top 40, but I was
insatiable.  I started playing trumpet about the same time, later moving on
to baritone horn and bass trombone, so eventually I came into contact with
some of the better wind music by Holst and others.

I still have my very first "classical" recording: Solti and the Chicago
Symphony playing Richard Strauss' symphonic poems "Also Sprach Zarathustra"
and "Till Eulenspiegels Lustige Streiche" on London (CS6978, now available
as part of a Decca two-fer, #440618).  This was a present from my younger
brother - the fact that we lived near Chicago at the time, and I had always
been a big fan of 2001 surely played a major part in the choice.  So by age
17 I had my first classical LP, and I soon bought another "classic" (lucky
guess - I think I liked the cover): a London Phase 4 release of Stokowski
and the New Philharmonia playing Debussy's "The Engulfed Cathedral" and
Mussorgsky's "Pictures at an Exhibition" (SPC21006, re-released on CD a
couple of years ago, but already deleted).  This was the first classical
recording that really captured my imagination, still I listened almost
exclusively to rock in my teens; Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd just seemed
to have more relevance.  I surely had a number of positive experiences at
school in music courses and as part of various bands.  I remember going to
see the symphony on several occasions, and members of the Chicago Symphony
(wind quintet if memory serves) actually came to my grade school.  When
I went to college, I picked up a used copy of Karajan's 1962/4 set of
Beethoven's Symphonies and listened systematically and relentlessly,
front to back, over and over again, as I studied.

But my classical listening really didn't start in earnest until I graduated
and had some extra money to spend.  It helped that popular music was going
through a particularly destitute time (about 1981 and punk was the rage),
and I was almost desperate for something new to listen to (a drive that
has helped define my experience with music in general).  A friend I worked
with, and young engineer from Poland, lent me Pollini's recording of the
Chopin Etudes on Deutsche Grammophon, Handel's "Water Music" played by
Van Beinum and the Concertgebouw on Philips, and Vivaldi's "Four Seasons"
played by the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra led by Munchinger on London are
three I remember specially.  This experience, now 20 years ago, was the
beginning of how I now enjoy classical music.  I've systematically explored
the works of most of the big names, so now I enjoy exploring the back
roads; the second and third tier composers.

>As for me, I stated playing the violin at age 6 and I was attracted
>to listening to recording that were so perfect compared to my own playing.

That's one thing I didn't experience.  Though I enjoyed the music of
some popular trumpet virtuosos - Davis, Ferguson, Chase, etc.  - but I
have never had a special affinity for classical trumpet or trombone.  This
might be because I was never quite good enough at the technical stuff - the
scales, exercises, sight-reading, etc.  - to make the school orchestra.
But I did play a lot of big band music, and though I enjoyed that a great
deal, I never really liked just sitting and listening to it.

>As much as I love classical music, it always surprises me that only a few
>students my age (I'm 20) care for classical music.  So that's where my
>wonder comes from, how you guys started.

I don't think that the majority of twenty-year olds have been interested
in classical music at any time this century, so it's something we've all
experienced.  I'd encourage you though not to miss the popular music of
your generation.  Music has many different uses.  There's a place for
abstract, hour-long symphonies, and there's a place for a catchy dance
tune.  Enjoying one does not preclude enjoying the other, no matter what
the misguided elitists say.  I still listen to new rock and alternative
music, and would be much poorer without it.  It doesn't, and probably
couldn't, take the place of the great classics in my affections, but
luckily there's no reason for me to have to make the choice.

Dave
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