Classical Music Dead? Don't Tell Composer Nico Muhly

We've been hearing variations on this theme for many years.  Classical music audiences are dwindling...orchestras are struggling...if you want to be a classical musician, don't quit your day job. Well, classical music audiences, in the traditional sense of the word, ARE dwindling and orchestras ARE struggling, but that's only part of the story. More accurately, classical music audiences are changing...migrating to different venues, looking for new musical experiences. One composer who is offering music lovers a chance to explore a variety of musical worlds in Nico Muhly.  His personal listening choices are all over the map.  “A bunch of Etta James for no apparent reason. Parsifal – I’ve done a myself a disservice, I think, by not studying it as thoroughly as I have other Wagner operas. Wow, look at all this Bach. That’s some serious goodness.  And have you got the new Lionel Ritchie? I’m totally obsessed!â€? Conductor Albert-George Schram once said to me that composers write music which reflects the times in which we live.  Nowhere is that better demonstrated than in the music of Nico Muhly, who finds music in very sounds that the rest of us tune out. Read Classical Music Dead?  Nico Muhly Proves it Isn't (Telegraph) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWfg4bA46PY&feature=plcp