How do you... find other people listening to classical?

[Ciel_Rouge]

Ain't as easy as finding other technoheads or metalheads is it? Sure, I can go to a concert but right now there are not many where I live as it is the "summer break" and besides I guess I won't come up to random people afterwards to find new acquaintances - some of them may be there while having only very little interest in classical music let alone making new musical friends

So, I am looking for ways to save time and effort and still find people I like. I tried social networking but it is not easy to find profiles of real classical enthusiasts, at least where I live ;-) So, how do you go around this issue? Are there any social networks specifically for classical fans?

[Opus106]

Are there any social networks specifically for classical fans?

Uh...(unless you want to list the names of your ex's, your best and worst features, your ideal date and the whole gamut in your profile) you just posted in one.

Come to think of it, you can still post all that stuff here too, just not in the profile.

[Ciel_Rouge]

Sure, classical forums are also a kind of a social networking tool But I live in Europe and don't suppose there is a single GMG-er from my country here, let alone my home city I keep thinking that there might be a classical fan a few blocks away but he/she is a beginner and has not come to finding classical forums on the net. Besides, in my country there are no big general forums like GMG but only highly specialized for particular instruments like piano. And in these forums there are mainly people who PLAY the instrument, looking for notes etc. and usually using the net as a tool to get what they need and completely separating it from their offline lives

[ChamberNut]

I've been wondering the same thing for awhile too.  I'd really like to find a group of enthusiasts that I could speak with, go have coffee with and discuss music with.  As much as I love GMG, I'd really like to find that with "real people" here in my city.

I'd love to organize regular Schubertiads at my house or another one of my future classical music buddies in the future! 

[hildegard]

I've been wondering the same thing for awhile too.  I'd really like to find a group of enthusiasts that I could speak with, go have coffee with and discuss music with.  As much as I love GMG, I'd really like to find that with "real people" here in my city.

I'd love to organize regular Schubertiads at my house or another one of my future classical music buddies in the future! 

You might try Classical Meetup. I know there is one in NYC, although I've never participated. If there isn't one in your area, you might start one.

http://classical.meetup.com/

[ChamberNut]

You might try Classical Meetup. I know there is one in NYC, although I've never participated. If there isn't one in your area, you might start one.

http://classical.meetup.com/

Thank you for that link!  I might just try that. 

[Opus106]

Sure, classical forums are also a kind of a social networking tool But I live in Europe and don't suppose there is a single GMG-er from my country here, let alone my home city

Huh. I think there are just two other persons here from the same continent as I'm in. (No, it's not Antarctica.)

Actually, reading your post again, I was reminded of a couple of sites that I had come across some months ago, thanks to (the-now-missing-from-GMG) Mark (later Kuhlau, then Mark again).

Dilettante
MusBook

I suppose this is the kind you were referring to?

[Diletante]

The only classical fan I've become acquainted with in real life, I met him while testing classical videos in the local video store.

So there, go to the classical section of your local video/music store and ask the people who come near: "Do you want to be my friend?"

[secondwind]

The last few years before my husband retired from his job, he took the direct approach:  If he saw someone who usually had earphones on while working at the desk, he'd ask "What kind of music do you listen to?"  If it was classical, he'd follow up with a conversation, invitations to do something with us, etc.  (If the answer was anything else, he'd just say "oh, interesting" in a way that indicated lack of interest,  and it would be a very short conversation. ) Whenever a new staff member joined the organization, he'd ask, "So, do you play and instrument? Sing?  Like classical music or opera?" I don't think I could pull that off myself, but we have made a few really good music friends through his efforts.  

We also eventually met four people who attend the same chamber music series we attend, but it was a very slow process.  After sitting next to each other for two or three years (with subscription tickets), we began to nod to each other.  After a couple of years of nodding, we exchanged names.  Then eventually we began to arrange to have dinner together before the concerts.  Somehow you'd think it would be easier, but adults usually aren't as open to new relationships as kids and young people!

[DavidW]

So there, go to the classical section of your local video/music store and ask the people who come near: "Do you want to be my friend?"

"I don't bite."

[schweitzeralan]

"I don't bite."

Actually tried something like that.  The response from the gentleman who was looking for classical CD's (way back then) claimed he was interested in The Beatles.

[greg]

(actually, one of the moderators is from Poland...)

I think it would probably help to live in a big city to have any chance at meeting people interested in classical, since the concert hall isn't too far away. Otherwise, it's almost impossible.

Who's that avatar, Ciel? I like it. 

[owlice]

A few ideas....

Participate in a classical music-related group, whether as a performer or volunteer. I met my best friend when we were both singing in a large chorus and I was assigned to stand next to her for a concert in what was then West Berlin; I swear I had never seen her before, despite rehearsing for some months before this! It's now been over 20 years since that concert; I'm so thankful she, too, is a tall alto, or I'd have never met her!

If you can sing, join a chorus; if you can play an instrument, join an ensemble. If there isn't an ensemble, form one.

If there are lectures before concerts where you are, as happens here, attend them and talk to the people you are sitting near. I've had good conversations with people I've sat next to at the symphony; I attended one concert for the Lauridsen work on the program, she for the Mozart.

Start a local classical music lover's group at your local public library. Arrange to use a room there (or at a community center, church, or other public space), put up flyers, put something out on Facebook and other online sites, and take a portable stereo system and some CDs to listen to. As time goes on, you can even arrange to have a student group come to perform a work.

Contact a local university to see whether they are interested in doing something for outreach to the community. The flagship state U I live near has weekly concerts at 5 PM on Tuesday that are free; I think that would be a peachy place to meet people if I weren't at work at that hour!

Join a book club. In my experience, in any group of booklovers, there will be a few classical music lovers.

Arrange to meet people you know from forums such as this when you travel. I heard Kennedy and the Minnesota Orchestra when I was in Minneapolis with a poster on a now-long-since-defunct board, Kuerti playing the last Beethoven sonatas in Philadelphia with a member of this board, and Schickele at Carnegie Hall with a member of another long-since-defunct board, listened to a young Russian pianist -- a young man I didn't know was a pianist until we met -- rhapsodize about music over dinner in Atlanta, this guy someone I knew from a stock market board (!), and so on.

[Ciel_Rouge]

Greg: I like my avatar too ;-) She simply reminds me of someone from Mezzo Forte but I'll let you know as soon as I pinpoint her real identity.

owlice: The city I live in has a population of about 400,000 which translates as "one of the major cities" in my country. Classical forums are technically defunct here except highly specialized forums for instrumentalists who mainly talk to each other.

People past their marital/kid raising age would mainly sit at home watching television or listening to rock or old pop (today's 60 year olds were about the age of 30 in 1970s which translates directly into an overwhelming preference for 70s rock like Pink Floyd and 70s pop like ABBA ).

The tradition of book clubs is not prominent in Poland as far as I know. However, there are those little local "cultural centres" where one can organize such meetings, however they would rather be aimed at teenagers than the elderly.

I have indeed considered running something like a music appreciation class for teenagers but I have no idea how this would work.

[owlice]

Are there any classical music concerts of any kind where you live?

If so, the group(s) organizing them probably offer a way to volunteer for the organization. Call them! Find out!

Is music taught in the schools? If so, there are music teachers. If there are music teachers, there are some among them who are classical-music inclined. Find a way to find them.

Give the teenagers in those cultural centers something else to listen to and a way to listen to it. Heck, start with pre-teens. You could use the Young People's Guide to the Orchestra (with an instrument petting zoo, so the kids can try out instruments), Carnival of the Animals, Peter and the Wolf, Gruber's Frankenstein, Vivaldi Four Seasons with score (check out the GMG Listening Group thread from some years ago, probably over on the old forum, for score sources and info), and so on. Use Bugs Bunny and friends to introduce works; it was through cartoons that my son first became acquainted with von Weber overtures.

Just because forums there are very specific doesn't mean there isn't room or interest in a forum that is not very specific. Someone listens to those pianists on the piano board, you know -- ask the pianists to help you find their listeners.

I found classical music lovers in my high school of 3,000 kids many years ago; surely you can find classical music lovers in a city of 400,000! I just can't believe it's an impossible task!

[Ciel_Rouge]

owlice: thanks for the detailed advice, it is surely not an impossible task. We have a concert hall and an opera house and I intened to check them out as soon as they play something I like I am also playing with the idea of running some kind of appreciation class for teenagers - I am not sure if music appreciation is still part of the curriculum but I will have to check that too.

Greg: my avatar comes from a series called REC:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rec_(manga)

[greg]

Greg: my avatar comes from a series called REC:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rec_(manga)

Cool, thanks! 

[Herman]

Ever heard of a thing called concert? It's where people go when they like a certan kind of music. And you know what? It also keeps the music form alive.

[mikkeljs]

I lived my whole life on the country totally isolated from other musicians untill age 19. Then I moved to Copenhagen to study at the academy, where I find the envirement entirely opposite than the other: so so many lovely musicians around me every day now! So many that I have now entirely isolated me from non-musicians, and I actually feel afraid of going into a store of that reason, which I think is a rational fear to have.

If you don´t study music, you can also meet plenty of musicians just by visiting the local conservatory. I did that at a holyday in Bangkok, and got lots of friends there too. It´s funny how extremely shy I am to regular people, while I can chat freely around and feel 100 procent on frequency with complete strangers if they are just musicians.

[Ciel_Rouge]

Herman: it WILL be a concert or opera soon, I'm all set. The only thing that could stop me now would be some Christmas break or something which would result in prices soaring because of some Christmas event there. Other than that, I shall report about my lost operatic virginity or concert hall virginity in a few days or weeks.

mikkeljs: I guess this happens with all kinds of deeper interests - total hostility or indifference in general public but a friendly welcome from insiders. And what kind of store did you mean? A shop with food or a music shop?