The Shock of the New

I’ve just returned from Townsville where I spent a very pleasant four days at the Australian Festival of Chamber Music, and I’d like to share a secret with you – an aging audience isn’t always a bad thing.

An issue that crops up in conversations all the time these days seems to be the million dollar question of how do we get a new audience for classical music? Arts organisations all over the world seem fixated on finding the silver bullet that will rejuvenate their patrons (if I may muddle my metaphors). There’s often an assumption that an older audience is a crusty one, set in its ways and only interested in ‘the three Bs’. A day in Townsville, however, is enough to put you right. Here are a crowd of mostly self-funding retirees (and you need to have the time and a little bit of spare cash to commit to this kind of event) who are up for a challenge. For three sessions a day they eagerly embrace the obscure, the new, and will even listen intently to the downright demanding.

During my time up north, Piers Lane and his team offered us everything from serial Schoenberg, through the byways of Halvorsen, Tippett, Moszkowski and Finzi, and on to Sculthorpe, Sofia Gubaidulina and Liza Lim’s Wild Winged-One for solo trumpet with wacky whistle! To add to the general sense of enlightenment, the inner lives of classical musicians were frequently laid bare in Piers’ fascinating concert conversations. Each piece of music and interview was listened to, digested, dissected and debated by an informed, intelligent, open-minded gathering that included more than its fair share of seniors.

I’m not saying we shouldn’t work our butts off to attract a new crowd – the Sydney Symphony Orchestra’s Vanguard programme is an excellent example of not dumbing down, yet playing classical music in new ways and locations for a younger demographic – but don’t write the current fan base off just yet. Chamber music is a good case of an art form that people mature into. I remember at age 25 I would have rather gnawed my arm off than sit through a Brahms string quartet. Now I’d go out of my way for the experience. Some intimate experiences only land emotionally and intellectually when you’ve absorbed a certain amount of life experience, and the AFCM crowd have that in spades. On that note, I hope you enjoy the reviews of the events as much as the Townsville audiences and we did.

​Review: Bach by Candlelight (AFCM) 
★★★★☆ A marathon day of Bach brilliance, crowned by two astonishing Anderszewski performances.

Review: Governor’s Gala (AFCM)
★★★★★ Anderszewski, Qin and Dickson head an extraordinary musical evening.

Review: Transfigured Night (AFCM)
★★★★☆ From the ridiculous to the sublime, Townsville’s 25th birthday bash is off with a bang.