I lean towards Christine Labroche's optimism. It is harder than ever for a composer to get heard and broadcasting is certainly in a bad way with regard to classical music, yet paradoxically there is more music available than ever before (especially, as Christine says, if you live in the woods, which is where I grew up!) Classical music (and high art in general) doesn't even get lip service any more, so that if there are Stokowskis and Bernsteins out there, they do not become household names as they once did, and young people don't even think about classical (though a lot of them listen to avant-garde stuff that might be borderline or crossover.) But I am still buying (too many) CDs. music is an industry with a 'long tail' in marketing terms. The big head is Britney Spears and all that rubbish, but there is a long tail of fans for better music all over the world, reachable on the internet. The same is true in publishing. Sales of magazines are actually up, but over 30% of the sales are in celebrity tabloids, while a lot of magazines are going online. Nobody knows how it's all going to fall out, but art will not die. It is what makes us different from animals. And maybe the only difference we can be proud of... D. Clarke *********************************************** The CLASSICAL mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's HDMail High Deliverability Mailer for reliable, lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html