Welcoming the New Path of L.A.’s ‘Arts Majority’

A hard truth about Los Angeles emerged from a meeting last month of 40 prominent leaders of the arts community: The arts are “graying.”

It was the consensus of these leaders that audiences that have long supported the arts in general are being replaced as we approach a new century. This new audience is led by a younger and more culturally diverse majority, and it has very different perceptions about the nature and substance of music and art.

This is tough medicine to swallow, but not to respond to it is a certain recipe for failure for our Los Angeles opera and ballet companies, symphony orchestras, museums, theaters and public radio stations.

To stand still in a community where change is the operative word is to become artistically irrelevant and ultimately extinct. That was the consensus of virtually all segments of the local arts community represented at the forum, from mainstream showcases downtown to cutting-edge theater groups to Los Angeles-area schools of music. All of these venues face changing audience expectations every day.

This same assembly of arts leaders also recognized the potential of contributing to cultural tolerance and understanding in Los Angeles through the arts in general and music in particular. Not only can music help to build bridges that connect people with their own art and culture, it can also connect people of diverse cultures with one another. It is a mission that we at KUSC and our parent, the University of Southern California, cannot ignore, and which our station is meeting through its “new sound.”

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When a classical music station such as ours moves beyond traditional Western European standards to musical programming that embraces the many cultures and continents represented in Los Angeles, vocal disagreement can be expected among many established listeners.

Yet for public radio not to change with the times would mean eliminating a vital communications link between a changing community and its sprawling new artistic directions.

Classical music stations--especially those in major urban centers like Los Angeles--can no longer occupy a cultural backwater appealing to a declining audience. It’s time to face up to--and respond to--the many different cultural and entertainment expectations of the emerging new “arts majority.”

Each week, more than 350,000 people--likely more than are reached by all of the Southern California arts venues combined--listen to just this one station. This ability to serve as a healing force through the universal voice of music is significant, blending the many sounds of the city, linking listeners of both non-European and traditional European music.

By attacking the old definition of classical music and the time-honored ways of presentation, a powerful statement emerges: All cultures are important, let their music fill the air.

By roaming the universe of global music, inviting listeners to experience what Leonard Bernstein called “the infinite variety of music,” the definition of “classic” music has been broadened to include significant music composed and performed by men and women from every source and culture without regard to such artificial distinctions and categories as “classical,” “popular,” “jazz,” “world,” “folk” and others.

That KUSC is changing with the times was recognized by the group as an investment in the future of the arts in Los Angeles. Public radio is both a purveyor of information and entertainment and a vital communications link between the community and its artistic expression.

While this is no panacea for a community struggling to connect, it can only help. A new sound that flourishes is a growing voice for the arts as a whole.