Who Needs It?

From NOTES FROM THE MUSIC DIRECTOR | ELIZABETH STOYANOVICH: Who Needs Classical Music? We All Do!

Like many households, the members of my family have a book going, and it can usually be found near our nightstands.

My oldest daughter is reading Stephanie Meyer's "Host," while the younger one is well into Margaret Mitchell's "Gone with the Wind." I just finished "All the Pretty little Horses" by McCarthy, but was halfway through "Atonement," to which I'll return.

My husband recently read an interesting book a friend suggested called "Who needs Classical Music?" by Julian Johnson. I thought the title was very intriguing and wanted to muse about it in this first column of the season.

When you stop to think about it, you make hundreds of decisions based on your judgment every day. What time shall I rise? What shall I wear? What shall I eat? When to take the kids to school? Your day is filled with choices.

What would make you choose to listen to classical music? And just for clarity, I'll refer to classical music as all "European art music," not just music from the Classical era (when Mozart, Haydn and Beethoven lived).

By the way, this is a huge topic unto itself and one I should look into with you on another occasion ...

There are the diehard supporters of classical music who claim it is futile to even discuss the "need" for classical music — it exists, was written by geniuses, and if you have enough culture you'll be attracted to it. Period.

Read the rest here.