What is classical music these days? Is it the butt of jokes? The stuffy music confined within the walls of our conservatories? Concerts for the wealthy, old people to show off their frocks and jewels?

It’s easy to put classical music into a box contained by Beethoven. Mozart, Bach and Tchaikovsky. But simple explanations never tell the whole story. Classical is alive and well, so why do we keep pretending it is the all about dead white men?

We are afraid. Afraid to try the clearly classical concerts, albums and groups. Over the past few decades in education, what proportion of young people have been taught basic music literacy? Like everything in life, complex music can be more enjoyable (and less scary) when you know the basics. But our educational expectations are a rant for another day.

I can understand this fear, but it is irrational. Classical music already exists our lives in a variety of ways. From movies to gaming to TikToks it guide our emotions and helps us to make our point. Just two notes, and years of musical theory, creates a villain unseen in the depths of the water. The swell of strings prepares us for the imminent profession of love. Strident brass creates an evil march for our dark villain. Trying to run from it is futile.

Instead, we should branch out and attend a classical music concert every once in a while. If we don’t, then the world will continue to reduce classical music (and ticket sales) to dead white men.

But stepping into those hallowed halls of the concert halls still feels like a big ask. Some classical concerts are still steeped in tradition an unknown rules. What if you clap in the wrong place? Or misidentify a piece of music? What if you don’t know the major classical composers?

Here’s the big secret, the artists don’t care about the ‘faux pas’ as long as you are enjoying the music.

I recently participated in the chorus of a Puccini concert. While I am a fan of classical music, I have never been a fan of opera. However, listening to a fantastic orchestra with sublime soloists had my heart soaring with the romantic highs and skin prickling with the treachery of the villain. Taking a step outside of my comfort zone was amply rewarded. Then I started to notice the musical Easter Eggs, when referencing the ‘American ways’ Puccini used what was then an official song of the US Navy; The Star Spangled Banner. And this musical conversation moves forward. Listen to The Humming Chorus and you will hear echoes of Les Miserables’ show stopping Bring Him Home. Un bel di vedremo forms the basis for the opening of Love is a Many Splendored Thing. All of this from a concert that I would not have chosen to attend.

Music, like all of our other fields of knowledge and skill, is always informed by what came before. From the early religious and folk song, to the proliferation of polyphony, to the formation of orchestras onto the invention of electronic instruments and recordings; music continues to learn and grow. Without our musical history we don’t get Ella Fitzgerald, The Beatles or even Taylor Swift.

Have you ever heard a classical accordion? The Australian Chamber Orchestra’s show For the Love of Music brought that delight to me this week. And what a spectacular night it was! It was full of new experiences, with contemporary composers alongside the classics and arrangements of a huge variety of pieces to suit this stringed orchestra. Perhaps the greatest point of difference was the willingness of the ACO to open themselves up to vulnerability and invited Leigh Sales and Annabel Crabbe to ask them questions. It was a spectacular night, and again I experienced things that I might never have chosen for myself.

So I encourage you to step beyond the Harry Potter soundtracks and Zelda themes, as fantastic as they are! Take a chance on something new.

Photo by Manuel Nägeli on Unsplash