A Grateful Dead Symphony

Posted at 11:03 AM on July 25, 2008 by Gillian Martin (1 Comments)

I've heard it said that the audience for classical music isn't aging; it's that music lovers tend to come to classical music later in life. (So the audience isn't dying out, the argument goes, it's continually replenished.) A recent spate of classical pieces by or about '60s rockers has me thinking about this phenomenon.

Next week, on what would have been Jerry Garcia's 66th birthday, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra will perform the world premier of Lee Johnson's "Dead Symphony #6," inspired by Grateful Dead songs; the following night, they'll play Led Zeppelin. Says one source, "The BSO, in my opinion, can rock."

Click here for last week's New Classical Tracks, featuring a piano concerto by Jon Lord of Deep Purple.

Comments (1)

It's weird that a young who lives a few blocks away,
and attended the same High School as my kids, turns out to be a cross between George Gershwin and Aaron Copeland.

I lost track of him for over twenty years, and forgot how good a musician he was in school. - Geeeese

Owen Schmidt
North Mankato, MN

Posted by Owen Schmidt | August 3, 2008 1:52 PM