Replay: Greg Sandow shares Five Things He's Learned about The Death of Classical Music
Check out the first five minutes of his recent class.
"To this class I’ll bring my passion for music, including moments when music carried me away. This is a class that’s for everyone, whether or not you’re a classical music fan. You won’t need special knowledge. We’ll talk about classical music not just as musical art, but as an absorbing cultural issue."
– Greg Sandow, Five Things I’ve Learned about The Death of Classical Music
Greg Sandow is a music critic and composer who has dedicated himself to finding solutions to classical music’s modern day problems. He taught about the future of classical music at Juilliard, and teaches now at Peabody. Recently, he has also been a freelance consultant for Pittsburgh Symphony and the Cleveland Orchestra.
Greg Sandow grew up in New York, falling in love with opera at the age of 9 and developing a passion for rock & roll at 11. He pursued his interest in singing, eventually attending Harvard University, where he majored in government. During the 1960s, he became a radical activist. Subsequently, he made the decision to become a composer. Remarkably, with only two compositions to his name, he gained admission to the Yale School of Music, where he earned a master's degree.
As a critic, Greg contributed to a range of publications, including the Village Voice, the Wall Street Journal, and classical music publications. He even held the position of classical music critic for Vanity Fair for a period. Beyond classical music, he served as the chief pop music critic for the now-defunct Los Angeles Herald-Examiner and later became the music critic and senior music editor for Entertainment Weekly. He resides in Washington, DC, with his wife, Anne Midgette, who is the chief classical music critic for the Washington Post.
Greg’s class, Five Things He's Learned about the Death of Classical Music explores the potential decline of classical music. He shares his thoughts about the likely consequences of classical music's aging audience and falling ticket sales, and he shares the potential for classical music to just fade away. Greg also examines cultural shifts affecting the art form, demographic changes in the classical music landscape, and the question of whether classical music can evolve to reconnect with contemporary culture and modern-day audiences.
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