This thread has made me curious about how members of the list came to
classical music.  I myself had no musical education to speak of growing
up in the 70s, and largely stopped listening to music of any kind after
I grew bored with pop after high school.  Although I attended Oberlin,
music was not a part of my life there.  The break came a few months ago
when one sleepless Saturday night I began listening to "Modern Masterpieces"
on the local NPR station.  I believe I heard Ravel's Sheherezade and
Schoenberg's Pierrot Lunaire, and was utterly captivated.  Why do classical
stations avoid such immediately appealing music, or relegate it to times
when the audience is guaranteed to be small?  (I ask this seriously.)

Jon Bernard