Is Classical Music Still Relevant?

I have been told countless times that classical music is a dying art form and a terrible career path.  Nonetheless I decided to ignore all of these people and became a classical musician anyways.   What I’ve found out in my career is that classical music isn’t disappearing, but evolving.  More after the break.

Among many names, classical music has been called old fashioned, boring, inaccessible, and irrelevant.  Today’s musicians are constantly combating these stereotypes to find new ways to make their instruments and music more popular.  Here’s a few examples:

Classical Revolution:

Founded in 2006 in San Francisco with the sole purpose of making chamber music more accessible.  Instead of playing in traditional concert halls, these chamber groups play in local coffee shops.  They play a wide variety of genres in a relaxed setting where people are free to come and go, move around, and hold conversations.  In six years, the movement has grown to include 30 chapters around the US, Canada, and Europe and has even spawned a record label of the same name.
Classical Revolution Website
Classical Revolution Los Angeles

The Classical Crossover Showcase at SXSW:

This showcase features classical musicians who have crossed over to popular music.  Many of these musicians have left traditional careers playing in symphonies to venture into this emerging genre.  In its first year in 2010, the showcase sold out and was wildly popular.
SXSW Classical Crossover Showcase

Classical Crossover Artists:

Here’s some noteworthy classical crossover artists you may want to check out.

The Piano Guys- This group features pianist John Schmidt and cellist Steven Sharp Nelson who started playing together at a piano store in Utah and now make videos that are viewed by millions of people worldwide.  The videos range from popular music covers to movie parodies such as “Star Wars” and "Bourne".   

Bond-String quartet formed in 2000, current members include Elspeth Hanson, Eos Chater, Tania, Davis, and Gay-Yee Westerhoff, who are all classically trained musicians from the UK and Australia.  The music is usually original, but in a pop style.  A similar group to check out is the Vitamin String Quartet, which does all popular covers rather than original music.

Zoe Keating-A Canadian cellist who creates the effect of multiple instruments playing simultaneously by making repetitive sounds that she records, loops, and then can play over.  She has even brought her playing to television and film.  A similar artist, Mark Summer, the cellist of the Turtle Island String Quartet has become popular for his own compositions which include celtic and fiddle elements.  His most well known song is Julie-O.

Apocalyptica- An all-cello group from Finland that has merged cello with heavy metal, at first they did only Metallica covers, but now has included original music in the heavy metal style.  They have also collaborated with numerous heavy metal musicians including Metallica, Slayer, Slipknot, and Rammstein.  2Cellos is a comparable group, but mainly covers rock and pop music and has surged to fame after their recent appearance on Glee.

Yo-Yo Ma-While being heavily regarded in the traditional classical world, he has also been one of the leaders in classical crossover music.  He latest crossover work, The Goat Rodeo Sessions, mixes classical with folk and bluegrass.  Like Yo-Yo Ma, violinist David Garrett took a similar career path starting in classical and then crossing over into rock and popular music.

More and more I’ve seen bands include classical instruments, especially since the rise of electric violins, violas, and cellos.  Some examples would be Yellowcard, ZOX, Rasputina, and Avery Watts to name a few.  A simple search on YouTube for any popular song will yield tons of covers by many classical musicians, from any instrument, age, or ability.   My conclusion is that classical music and musicians will always remain relevant as long as they can adapt to changing musical trends to attract new listeners.