Music: Classical Trends

Music and Money.

Attendance at symphony concerts rose from 24.7 million to 30.8 million between 1989 and 1999, suggesting a modest resurgence of interest in classical music. During the same period, however, the number of classical radio stations declined to fewer than 160. Labor disputes also plagued several major orchestras, including the San Francisco Opera Orchestra, the New Orleans Symphony, the Atlanta Symphony, the Oregon Symphony, and the Philadelphia Orchestra. In addition, nineteen of the largest symphony orchestras in the United States had deficits averaging approximately $750,000 per orchestra. These financial woes arose in part because of a congressional reorganization of the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) that effectively prohibited the NEA from awarding grants to defray operating costs. A decrease in the total appropriations for the NEA since 1996 led to an additional decline of nearly 40 percent in direct...

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