OrchestraX Website

Welcome to the new OrchestraX Website! Please visit us often for information on concerts, auditions, and other orchestra activities.

Ever wonder what became of P.D.Q. Bach?  The long-lost Bach relative has finally been glorified in DVD land thanks to the 2007 release of P.D.Q. Bach in Houston: We Have a Problem!  Featuring Prof. Peter Schickele, OrchX, the Okay Chorale and a not-so-heavenly host of comedic musicians in the continuing saga of ridiculous and ribald spoofs on classical music, this best of P.D.Q. Bach live performance highlights an almost half-century of inimitably fun music-making.  Included are favorites Iphegenia in Brooklyn, The Seasonings, and New Horizons in Music Appriciation: The Beethoven Sportscast.  At Amazon.com and http://www.acornonline.com/product.asp?pn=13088.  

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An Orchestra for the Digital Age

Circulating classical music’s lifeblood in newer generations is always a challenge. Our venerable orchestras, once the institutional guardians of this heritage, not only flounder to keep older audiences enthused, but have yet to significantly attract young audiences, who seem to envision only a one dimensional, formal and unapproachable concert hall experience. The whole atmosphere surrounding classical music is too staid, or the programming mix is wrong, or there are just too many other exciting entertainment options. Those of us involved in this struggle know only too well that we are in great danger of losing one of the foundation blocks of western civilization if we don’t find the magical alchemy to solve the problem.

Though our musical heritage is a long one, we tend to forget that different generations have come to an appreciation of serious music’s life-affirming qualities in very different ways. Early listeners were drawn from a spiritual context, where great music was synonymous with praise or prayer. 18th century audiences expanded their musical tastes for the social interactions it offered, those during the 19th century held that educating oneself musically was simply another responsibility of an enlightened mind, and by the 20th our cultural awareness had finally connected to a strong philosophical sense that music somehow excelled all other art forms as the truest expression of the human spirit.

We are left, then, to rethink the context in which classical music is presented to this new generation of listeners, and it becomes critical to experiment with new gateways to those minds who no longer accept the traditional approaches of the last few decades. The indefatigable Leonard Bernstein discovered a 1950’s visual gateway in television, and an entire generation owes its musical enthusiasm to him through his Young People’s Concerts. Television screens, phonographs and CDs are being replaced by computer screens and downloadable portable music, and the flow of information, education and entertainment is more immediate and complex. This environment and its audience realignment would seem to be just as capable of opening its own intriguing gateway for classical music.

OrchestraX, an orchestra for the digital age, is setting its sights on exploring ways to “stop the classical music audience brain drain.”