Christine Labroche <[log in to unmask]> wrote: 

>Were there as many people attending colleges of music and conservatories?

Ok, call me an old fuddy duddy, but I was saddened when it became possible,
here at the University of Texas, to get a graduate degree in ethnomusicology
without having the ability to read music.  While I don't know the head
counts, it seems that however many heads there might be, they may not
be filled with the basics.  Also, at our school, the head count of
musicologists versus ethnomusicologist has now shifted in favor of the
latter.

>As for the greying concert audiences, well, new grey heads are growing
>up to fill the halls for you all the time.  It just so happens that older
>people are often the ones with the necessary personal freedom and time
>- when money is not too great a problem - but the fair and the dark are
>there too.

I am reminded of that wonderful book "The Performing Arts, the Economic
Dilemma," as well as countless articles I have read on the "state of the
arts." People have been writing about the greying of audience for as
long as they have been writing about marketing in the arts...and with
those baby boomers getting grey hair we might actually have a potential
for a larger audience than ever before.  However, I believe, one might
wonder as to the relative benefit to classical music...when one considers
what is often marketed as classical music.

Karl

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