[Dixielandjazz] OKOM audience age distribution

[Laurence Swain]

It is often observed on the list that the audience for OKOM is shrinking, in part because most 
fans are old, and they become infirm or die, with fewer replacements joining the fold.

OKOM is one of my favorite forms of chamber music.  "Classical" is another.

I attended a live chamber music concert last night here on Cape Cod. The particlars:

    Musicians The Parker String Quartet, featuring the Borromeo Quartet
    Time 8:00 PM
    Location First Congregational Church of Wellfleet
    200 Main Street 
    Wellfleet
    508.349.6877 
    Ticket Info $25 General Admission / $15 College Students / 18 & Under FREE
    Purchase Tickets Please call the Box Office at 800.818.0608 or visit TicketWeb
    Program Details 

    Beethoven - String Quartet in c minor, Op. 18, No. 4
    Kurtag - Six Moments Musicaux Op. 44
    Mendelssohn - Octet in Eb Major, Op. 20 

    The Washington Post describes the Parker as "a quartet that deserves close 
    attention." Juries on two continents agreed, awarding the young ensemble top honors 
    at both the Concert Artists Guild International and Bordeaux String Quartet 
    Competitions in 2005. CCCMF is delighted to welcome the young quartet to the Cape 
    for our 27th Summer Season. 
    The second piece on the program is Six Moments Musicaux, by Gyorgy Kurtag. The 
    Parker Quartet premiered this piece in Weill Recital Hall in November of 2005. A 
    review from the New York Times states "[the piece] certainly gives a quartet a 
    workout. Its six movements are varied in shape and texture, but most are spiky to an 
    almost visual degree, with bursts of angularity offset by passages that range from the 
    dark and tentative to the pointillistic and high-spirited." We´re proud to present 
    another concert featuring music written expressly for the ensemble that will perform it 
    for you! 

    This concert will round out with our resident Quartet, the Borromeo, joining the Parker 
    in a performance of Mendelssohn´s Octet for strings. A musical partnership like this is 
    surely not to be missed. 

It was OUTSTANDING, with the young members of the 4-yr-old Parker quartet delivering a 
lovely performance of the Beethoven.  After intermission, the Parker Quartet was joined by 
the somewhat older Borromeo Quartet for a stirring, flawless performance of the lively 
Medelssohn octet.

My wife and I were sitting in the front row of the church sanctuary (I like to be down front for 
OKOM, too).  

At one point during the evening I stood and took a look at the audience of a couple of 
hundred folks.  Many more than we usually get at most OKOM concerts at most venues in 
the Boston area but -- good grief! -- it looked as though the average age of these concert-
goers was even older than the typical OKOM audience hereabouts!  Very few young people; 
lots of folks who looked to be older than my 70 years.

Two types of chamber music with aging audiences.  Yet the audience for American Idol is 
huge, and seems to include people of all ages. 

Sad.

Larry Swain