How did you "discover" classical music?

[LaciDeeLeBlanc]

Ahh, I'm sure someone has made a topic of this before, but I can't help asking it. What got you into classical music?

Are you a musician?

Did your parents listen to classical music?

Did a certain music course in college inspire you?

Are you a music educator?

[bhodges]

As a child growing up in Texas, my mother used to take us to concerts by the Lubbock Symphony Orchestra.  I still remember hearing Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker Suite (with dancers!) around the holidays.  Later my parents brought home a huge haul of LPs that someone had just given away, and one of them was Prokofiev's Scythian Suite and Lieutenant Kije (by Herman Scherchen and the VSO), which I played to death (probably to my family's consternation).  Probably even more worrisome, I then got Steve Reich's Violin Phase and It's Gonna Rain.    But it was all uphill. 

--Bruce

[Holden]

My mother used to sing around the house and some of it was classical. Dvorak's "Songs My Mother Taught Me" is one I particularly remember. This, I believe, inspired my love of classical music and when given the chance to learn piano my fate as a classical music lover was sealed.

[Mark]

Listening to a radio programme called 'Forum' on Sunday afternoons (BBC Radio Solent), hosted by a teacher at my brothers' school. Played classical and light instrumental. I'd always suspected classical might be for me. This show confirmed that, and led to my first classical CD purchases. Which surprised my family, none of whom like classical.

Just as a post-script, all this happened some 16 years ago. During the time between then and now, I had long periods when rock and electronic dance music dominated my listening. But by 1997, classical was gaining the upperhand, and that's the year my collection really began to grow apace. By 2002, my listening was pretty much only classical (with a bit of Kate Bush and Tori Amos thrown in - both of whom I still adore), and though I had a bit of a 'renaissance' from 2003-2005, where I enjoyed a broad variety of music (aided by a high-capacity MP3 player ), I returned to classical in a huge way in 2006, and now it's pretty much all that goes into my ears.

[mahlertitan]

none of my family members liked classical, or music for that matter.
I discovered classical music when i accidentally saw a clip of "Carmen", and i think you all know which part, yes, Hanbanera.

[jochanaan]

I couldn't have gotten away from it if I'd wanted to.  (Fortunately I didn't! )  Both my father (who died when I was a child) and my mother were classical-music lovers, and we had an extensive record collection.  Still, it took me till my teen years to start listening actively on my own.

Today I perform extensively and teach flute and oboe privately.

[Steve]

I was bombarded with it during nap-time, of course! Although, I didn't begin collecting until a few short years ago, I've been listening regularly ever since the day I held my first violin.

[Solitary Wanderer]

My parents, especially my Father would play records every evening. Mainly classical and some jazz. My father hated TV and would call it 'The Idiot Box'  . This is when I was aged -0-8 years old.

It was mainly things like; Beethovens #5, Schuberts 'Unfinished', Tchaikovsky Swan Lake & Nutcracker, Greig PC & Peer Gynt etc...

I didn't actively buy any classical music [although I was a huge music fan;mainly rock] untill I was 19. Bachs Greatest Hits . Bach and Wagner were my faves in thoses days.

I had another surge with classical when I was 26.

I was mainly interested in 'progressive' rock styles from about 28-37 [but still listening to some classical].

Four years ago [after a couple of indifferent years musically] I attended a NZSO concert and was literally blown away. I'd 'come home' 0:)

The last four years have been my most intense immersion in classical, and even Opera.[Mention Opera to me 3 years ago and I would have launced into a tirade about it!].

I feel classical will be my main music of choice for some time now;the oceans are so deep.

[Greta]

I gradually discovered it in several ways. Mainly piano lessons when I was young, first with Mozart, Bach, Beethoven, I had an excellent teacher that introduced the greats to her students in a fun way. When we achieved certain marks with our theory test we were rewarded with plastic busts of famous composers and we strived to collect as many as possible. 

Film music was important for me in discovering the joy of orchestral music, specifically the music of John Williams, and our local classical radio station and PBS. My turning point was seeing Levine's Ring broadcast one summer, I was 12 or 13, and totally transfixed. I remember that vividly. The glorious singers, the story, the whole thing just floored me. I became totally enamored with Wagner (and still am) and pretty much went from there. The usual "gateway pieces" came after, like The Planets, Pictures, Carmina Burana, etc. It took me a long time to get into contemporary music though, only after being exposed to that frame of writing in college wind ensemble did I really appreciate it.

My parents really admire classical music and enjoy it, but don't listen to it, but my uncle is a lot like me and was a big inspiration. We still converse about recordings and composers all the time, more so now that I've learned even more over the years. I am a musician, my parents are as hobbyists, and I do plan to work in this field. 

[Tancata]

My dad is very into classical, especially the late romantics. My mum less so but she is a music lover.

Music is a hobby for me. Until my voice broke I sang in a couple of choirs, but I haven't been in a choir for the last while. I'm learning guitar now, again as a hobby. So no, not a musician in the real sense  .

I was massively overexposed to romantic music when I was a kid - maybe explains the twitches when I am subjected to it now*. But I've always loved folk, and I got into early music that way. Later into renaissance and baroque music. I got into post-romantic music initially via prog-rock stoner friends  . I generally find vocal music more accessible - my first renaissance kicks were songs by Byrd and Dowland. Bach and Beethoven were also important.

Since I heard so much when I was a kid, there's not really one piece or one moment where I went - "ah ha!". 

*Seriously, don't bring you kids to concerts if they don't want to go  .

[Kullervo]

From ages 8-12, the only music I listened to were movie soundtracks, the Star Wars soundtracks in particular. I think those were crucial in forming my music taste, but I didn't start listening to classical music until about two years ago. At that time my tastes were mostly electronic music so I was attracted to things that seemed "out there." An acquaintance of mine introduced me to tape music from Maderna, Nono, and others, and eventually I became interested in instrumental music while my interest in electronic music diminished. I went from Ligeti to Xenakis to Messiaen to Boulez, and from there to Debussy — who was the big "gateway" for me into music made before 1900. Now I listen almost exclusively to all genres of classical music from all time periods.

[bhodges]

I am quite enjoying this thread...thanks already to all who have posted.  The entry points show how many different ways there are to get into all of this.  (I'm also thinking of one of the posters here who hasn't been around much lately -- apparently very busy -- whose initial love was Berg.)

--Bruce

[not edward]

My mother listened a lot, and I apparently enjoyed it along with her. When I was 2, I loved Vivaldi, while by the time I was 5, she apparently had found that the best way to shut me up for an hour was to put on a Brahms piano concerto. At 10 I'd graduated to Mahler and Shostakovich.

Oddly enough, by my mid-teens I stopped listening to classical music entirely (probably in part due to frustration after a damaged shoulder had forced me to give up playing violin, which I was moderately decent at) and it wasn't till about ten years later that I started listening seriously again--but this time I started with late 20th century music and worked backwards.

[beclemund]

No one in my family was involved in classical music. My dad had more than a few Stan Getz albums, but I did not even listen to those until I was out of the house at 18.

My first exposure to classical music was to Peter and the Wolf at the public library near my aunts house. My sisters and I would walk there after school and wait for our parents to pick us up when they were off from work. I wandered across the street and almost daily sat down with Prokofiev...

In junior high, I played in the school band. I was not particularly committed to music, however. I did enjoy playing the french horn though. My listening did not expand any more until college when I actually had a job and a bit of disposable income.

The first classical album I bought was George Szell and the Cleveland Orchestra performing Prokofiev's Lt. Kijè... the theme from it was used in a Sting song that I enjoyed at the time. At the same time, I got a few recommendations from the record store attendant and took home a disc of Rossini overtures, Gershwin's Rhapsody and F Concerto, and Vivaldi's Four Seasons. The performances on the later three were largely forgettable... and I sold them to a used CD dealer a few years after during a move.

My tastes in music have vacillated quite a bit, but for most of my adult life, I have been a jazz fan... Particularly hard bop. Only fairly recently has my interest been focused on classical music. I picked up the first of the Gardiner Bach pilgrimage CDs and have been exploring every thing I could find since then. 

[Mozart]

As a kid I didn't really care for any music. My brother and sister listened to all that garbage like Nirvana. The game final fantasy 7 had good music but it wasn't until I got a computer that music hit. I did have some classical music all the time, but it didn't really work out until the moonlight sonata and its amazing 3rd movement. From then it was just exploration all the way, to my family's shock, to opera! The Marriage of Figaro, rene jacobs, by chance I checked it out from the library and listened to it 100 times until It clicked.

[Harry]

No music lovers in the family, infact they hated it.
I am self taught in this, no one in my family has the same greed for classical music, apart from my great grand father.

[Papy Oli]

I basically went into classical music through an headphone upgrade couple of years ago. I was mostly into acoustic / country-rock / folk music, when i bought a new headphone (HD650 to name and shame the culprit  ). That spurred the usual rediscovery of my CD collection, and as that model was also hailed for classical music, i eventually gave it a shot out of curiosity on Vivaldi's Summer (what a surprise), and was just totally immersed in the music.

no parents's LPs or music education to blame...just Sennheiser... 

[orange]

My father is a musician. At the age of 8-9 they sent me to music school. But I really started to listen carefully to classical music 3 years ago. Now I also like to listen to contemporary music. And in autumn I'm going to study music(clarinet) at university.

[BachQ]

My mother ... apparently had found that the best way to shut me up for an hour was to put on a Brahms piano concerto.

Brilliant!

[The Emperor]

It was my everlasting hunger for "new" music.
I started with metal since i was a little boy, in my early 20's i got into 70's prog rock and classical was next in the list, so here i am, addicted eversince.