NOVEMBER 21, 2025 – We who don’t live and breathe technology (i.e. We who are above a certain age, which in the present context is best left unspecified) are quick to scorn it. “Too many people have replaced eye contact with the screen-stare,” we say with lament. Yet, this same element of modern life has also allowed us to leverage our time and resources in ways unimaginable not so long ago. Technology has also enriched our minds and expanded our horizons exponentially.
One area where I experience the benefits of technology is classical music. Back in the introductory phase of my life, people of that day enjoyed classical music in one of three ways: 1. Listening to recordings on LP discs “played” on a turntable hooked up to a tuner and speakers, 2. Attending a live concert, and 3. Learning how to play a musical instrument, then performing music on one’s own. As time progressed, so did the range of recordings—artists and compositions—but in both categories, “stars” crowded out lesser known people and pieces.
Today the choices are seemingly endless. Multiple musical platforms exist, but my “go to” place is YouTube. If I search “Chopin,” I’ll spend the next half hour scouring the results. Likewise a search of “Bruckner.” That effort is like a kid panning for gold at the “Sutter’s Mill” booth at a carnival: in both cases she’s guaranteed to be a winner. My second “go to” place is Reels on Facebook (as much as I dislike and eschew much else on Facebook), which knows well my listening patterns. As a result of those views, I’ve wound up “following” many amazing artists and ensembles.
Then there are the subscription-based platforms hosted by major orchestras around the world.
Three things about all this have captured my attention:
FIRST are the legions of youthful virtuosi in the world; violinists and pianists, in particular, who showcase their technical prowess by ripping effortlessly through the “war horse” end of the repertoire. Every day, it seems, I’m introduced to yet another two or three musical geniuses that I’d never heard or heard of before.
SECOND is the proliferation of ensembles, particularly across Europe, and the composition (pun fully intended) of these orchestras. Older videos—predating the early 1990s—show male dominated groups, but in time, more women were accepted into musical chairs. Current recordings often feature ensembles wherein women are in the clear majority. Frankly, I’m surprised it took so long, but then again, I had the good fortune of having grown up among my three violin-playing sisters, all of whom became members of nationally prominent orchestras. In my mind no need existed for them to “catch up” to men; the question was, When would opportunities for women catch up?
Beyond the growing number of women gaining seats in orchestras was the increase in the number of orchestras throughout Europe. How are all these supported? How do they compete for top talent? What sort of a living do professional classical musicians make in Europe? Who attends all the concerts? What aspects of the European orchestras (governance; organization; funding; membership) should be—and can be—adopted successfully here in the U.S.?
THIRD is the evolution of stage presence and theatrics. Many of today’s young performers engage in distracting theatrics—lots of bending, twisting, and projecting exaggerated “oneness” with the music. Personally, I find much of it overdone and distracting. I imagine, however, that modern classical music audiences influenced by the showmanship associated with popular music insist on being entertained with lots of gyrations and explicit emotional gestures. Audiences—and therefore performers—seem to think that the Tchaikowsky violin concerto and Brahms piano concerti are rendered best when accompanied by theatrical emotionalism.
In any event, I now take for granted an over-arching condition of Western classical music—again, especially throughout Europe: the vitality and accessibility that the world now has to classical music. What’s intrinsically remarkable (world class performances of world class music) has been rendered unremarkable (ubiquitous and easily accessed). Accordingly, we can celebrate that classical music is as robust as ever from both the musicianship side of the stage, as well as the audience side, even if that audience is no longer confined to their seats in concert halls.
Subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.
© 2025 by Eric Nilsson
