Karl Miller writes: >>In my class in contemporary music, taken by most of the composition >>majors, I had them listen to...Penderecki (at that time he was still >>avant garde), Boulez, Stockhausen, Pousseur, Berio et al. ... I doubt >>the person on the street these days, would be able to name any composer. >>Similarly, it seems like we don't have icons anymore. Jon Gallant responds: >Karl's list of avant garde composers tells us precisely why the general >public no longer pays any attention to serious music, and why even the >music-loving public stays away in droves from any concerts involving >music by what was formerly termed "the avant garde". Thanks loads Pierre, >Karl-Heinz, Henri, and Luciano, not to mention al. There is a very large volume of contemporary music which is "serious music", which is not "easy listening" any more than Beethoven is "easy listening", but is approachable in a way that the avant garde of forty years ago is not. It tends to get overlooked by the public. A few names out of many: George Tsontakis, Ingraham Marshall, Alfred Schnittke. I would further recommend that listers give a try to some of the Naxos "twenty first century" series. Bernard Chasan