But I always wonder how this can be. When I was 20 I went to classical concerts where most of the audience seemed to be over 60. Now I'm going to concerts where the audience is still over 60. That means they were in their 40s twenty years ago. So where were they in the audiences I was in back then? It's as if classical music is a developmental stage or ailment, like menopause or arthritis, that consistently hits most people around the same age.

When I think about it, I sometimes feel a sense of dread for the future, because if old people don't keep liking classical music, attending concerts, and donating to orchestras and similar groups, there's the possibility that the whole remarkable apparatus that supports this art will wither away.