From Gillian Gallagher, a violist who was one of my Juilliard students this spring. Reprinted from her final paper, with her permission:
We think of the general public as being ignorant and unable to pay attention — we don’t give them enough credit. The average American consumes a vast amount of entertainment (complex TV shows, hours of music on their iPods, movies) a day — I feel fairly confident that they will want to listen to and watch concerts if we present them in the ways that they are already accustomed to consuming their entertainment.