The Kings on Classical Music
Classical music is still going strong, according to the King Family. While interviewing various family members, I asked each King if they think that classical music is a dying art form. Here's what they had to say:
DO YOU THINK THAT CLASSICAL MUSIC IS A DYING ART FORM?
"No. I think it's
still going strong, especially in a town like
Patricia:
"No. The younger people are coming to more concerts than they used to. There's more exposure than there used to be. You go to the dentist office, and that's about all you hear."
"No. I sell a ton of it, and jazz is growing more, too."
Rob:
"No. Plenty of people still listen to it."
Jim:
- "It can be looked at as a dying art. And we don't have to let it die. It can continue on. Your generation could carry it on, which is great."
- "It's not as interactive as it used to be. Classical music used to be more popular, because piano lessons were more popular. Everyone had a piano in their house, and they had two, three, four, five, six kids. They all took lessons. In my family we had seven kids. Everybody had lessons."
- "People don't know about classical music. You can mention Rachmaninoff's Second Piano Concerto—I love that piece—or Beethoven's symphonies, or Mozart operas or Chopin ballades, and nobody will know. There's a blank look that will come across everyone's face. And I think that's because they're not exposed to it enough. The only exposure that I ever see is the symphony in town, which is underexposed, the symphony in Detroit, which is underexposed, and there are some things that come through the University Musical Society that are phenomenal, but nobody knows what it is. So there's a small group that goes. And that's too bad. It needs to be more exposed in schools, and I think parents need to expose their kids to classical music."
- "I think the I-pod actually might help classical music. A lot of people have classical music on their I-pods."
- "Jazz was a club sport, if you will. In other words, the only other place that you'll see jazz is in the clubs. And that is really a dying art. The clubs aren't doing anything anymore. There's a jazz club in town here…The Firefly. The Firefly's….fire has gone out."
WHAT JIM KING PLANS ON DOING ABOUT IT:
- "There's a jazz pianist, Tad Weed, and he and I have been talking a lot recently about doing concert series here at the store, and having lessons. He's got a drummer, Sean Dobbins—incredible drummer—that also teaches, and that's where I see all these jazzers going: in schools. And that seems to be the best exposure for jazz, in education as opposed to clubs. I want to have a thing where three or four of the teachers and their groups play here, say once a month, and then a headliner plays after them. Like Johnny O'Neil, or just somebody that we can afford to pay that comes and headlines. And that would be much more exposure. All the kids' parents and their friends would come in, and all their friends will say 'I want to do that!' And based on my observation, I see jazz drifting from the clubs—because so many clubs aren't making it anymore—into music education. They have a jazz program at U of M that was unheard of twenty years ago. They have a jazz program at MSU, and there's the Lincoln Center of Art and Musicians. So that's where I think that's going, and I'd like to be a bigger part of that. My philosophy on the store and selling pianos is teach somebody to play, and they'll buy."