Is The World Aging Along With Classical Audiences?

The debate over the supposed aging of the core audience for orchestral performances is raging again, and composer Matthew Guerreri has an interesting take. Acknowledging that audiences seem to have aged over the past several decades, he points out that both overall life expectancy and the age at which people settle into adulthood have gone up at almost the same rate. “The problem–if it even is a problem–would seem to be more a function of demographic evolution than a lack of cultural wherewithal on the part of classical music specifically.”