Discrimination & The “Classical Music Club”— Part 1 | The Millennial Edit
In this week’s edition of The Millennial Edit, Rosie introduces the “classical music club” and explains why its forced narrative of unity is actually flawed.
In the world in general, a focus is put on the ‘uniting’ power of music.
We see it in rock festivals, in jazz clubs, in popular music with millions of streams — music brings people together, as it has done throughout history. In celebration, in worship, in times of great happiness and great sadness, music is a part of what we know as human interaction.
Classical music has its place in this tradition also.
It brings people together, often in incredibly intimate setting to a place where, if we listen deeply enough, we can time travel and visit countries we may never see.
To listen to classical music is pure joy, but it is not for everyone.
The ‘classical music club’ is one that has recently started to bother me, and it is because — despite the fact that many of us are the perfect demographic, and have tried our best to become part of the club — we still end up feeling left out.
This would not be a problem if the narrative of the classical world fitted with the reality, but unfortunately the forced narrative is that classical music is for all people, of any belief or upbringing and that it creates unity.
However, the reality is that the classical world really accepts a very small part of society.
There are fraternity style hierarchies and inside jokes, there are traditions and unspoken rules, and these things are totally fine, if the classical world would not constantly searching for ways to make it more approachable.
When working on the marketing for a business, one of the most important things to remember is that your message, intentions and demographic must match.
Perhaps the classical world has simply missed the mark with their narrative?
After all, most of us would probably still be here, playing classical music, even if we weren’t being told that it would heal the world…
About Rosie Bennet
Born in London in 1996, Rosie started playing guitar at age seven. She received her early musical education at The Yehudi Menuhin School of Music and went on to study with Zoran Dukic (The Hague, NL), Johan Fostier (Tilburg, NL), Rene Izquierdo (Milwaukee, USA) and Raphaella Smits (Leuven, BE). She has performed in festivals all over Europe, including Open Guitar Festival in Křivoklát, Czech Republic, Glasgow’s Big Guitar Weekend, Scotland, Porziano Music Festival, Italy and the West Dean guitar Festival, UK. Highlights of her concert career include performances at Wigmore Hall, London, The North Wall, Oxford and concerts given on El Camino De Santiago.
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