Mark Wait is Dean and Professor at the Blair School of Music, Vanderbilt University, where he holds the Martha Rivers Ingram Dean’s Chair.

There are many reasons to relish living in Nashville, and one of the best is Nashville Public Radio’s Classical 91.1.  Here we have a great cultural resource, one that is available to all of us, 24/7, regardless of our age or station in life. 

Which brings us to the place of classical music in our society.  One hears a lot about the so-called decline or even “death” of classical music, but such pronouncements are nothing new.  They have been with us for hundreds of years, and it is both amusing and reassuring to read them, and to know that they were wrong.  As the pianist Charles Rosen reminded us, “The death of classical music is perhaps its oldest continuing tradition.”

Classical music isn’t dying, but it is changing.  In most fields, change usually happens gradually, but classical music has seen accelerating trends in the past ten years.  Concert dress is less formal, and there has been a shift away from traditional forms such as opera and orchestras toward chamber music and innovative smaller ensembles.  Yes, orchestras and opera companies still exist, and many of them, such as the Nashville Symphony Orchestra and Nashville Opera, will persevere.  But younger musicians – and audiences – are finding homes in smaller, innovative groups.  In Nashville alone, Intersection and Alias present exciting new works and superb performances that one won’t find elsewhere.

And there have even been fundamental changes in venues.  Great halls such as Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, and our own Schermerhorn Center still exist, of course.  But so do Oz, Poisson Rouge, National Sawdust, Redcat Theater in Los Angeles, and blackbox theaters throughout the country – informal, intimate venues that feature many types of music and technology for smaller, highly engaged audiences.  These new venues have certainly renewed the vitality of our concert life.  

The musicians who play in those venues are young, energetic artists who have changed the musical landscape.  Our leading performing groups now include the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), the vocal group Roomful of Teeth, the string quartet JACK, and other innovative, cutting-edge ensembles.  These are often the role models for today’s students, who increasingly seek those kinds of experiences – experiences fundamentally different from the ones an older generation (mine, for example) trained and hoped for. 

These changes show that classical music today is dynamic, vital, and exciting.  And there will always be art music in one form or another.  There is still the deeply human yearning for music that reflects human experience and aspirations on a profound level.  Trends in classical music, as in any other field, will come and go, but serious music is present in all ages, and in all places – including right now in Nashville.  This is an exciting time and place to be a classical musician.