The title of a Spotify channel says all of it: ‘Classical music is NOT boring.’

A 2019 survey of 8,000 adults throughout eight nations — from the U.S. and the U.Ok. to Europe, Mexico and South Korea — discovered the identical. Classical music — which is to say, orchestral music — was the fourth-most standard style, “with more fans than R&B or hip hop.”

Nearly a 3rd of the viewers was comprised of listeners underneath age 35, “a statistic reflected among ABC Classic’s listeners,” within the phrases of the Australian radio station that reported the survey.

Three years on, and 9,000 miles away from Down Under, a group orchestra on the Western Slope goals to spice up its proportion of youthful listeners much more. The Valley Symphony Association in Montrose is aiming on the child in all of us subsequent weekend, because it presents its last live shows of the season, ‘Pop Stars & Superheroes.’

The live shows will function visitor conductor and pianist Steven Arguilo-Arbues, of Denver, who has a grasp of music diploma from the Manhattan School of Music and has carried out in, amongst different locations, Carnegie Hall. He’s the third, and the ultimate, visitor conductor to steer the symphony earlier than the music committee selects a brand new everlasting conductor, seemingly in early May.

It has been a painstaking course of: The VSA’s musicians full “extensive surveys” after working with every conductor, stated Stacey Ryan, the VSO’s publicist (and clarinet participant); viewers members’ feedback have been solicited instantly following every live performance.

“Frankly, we’ve been both surprised and thrilled by how many people are filling out the surveys,” Board President Hartland Chubb has stated. “It’s great to know our music lovers care, and we thank you all for your terrific feedback.”

“It’s an important thing, when you have the opportunity to pick a new conductor, and we’re going by the book,” Ryan stated of the scrupulous choice course of. “Where do we go from here? Where does our audience want us to go, and how do we involve them? We want the audience to connect with this music, and the conductor is a really important piece of it.”

“Music has the power to engage the mind, stir the heart, and reinvigorate the soul, no matter your age,” Arguilo-Arbes has stated. Of the 2 live shows he’ll lead subsequent weekend, he added, “I feel privileged to make great music with the musicians of the VSA and have fun sharing it with the community.”

The live shows are prone to certainly be enjoyable for all: “You’ll relate to this stuff. I guarantee it,” Ryan stated. “When people say they don’t like orchestra music,” she’s fast to answer, “You do like it. You hear it every day. The modern form of it is on TV, and in commercials. Imagine a movie without a soundtrack.”

Next week, the Valley Symphony will carry out alternatives from “today’s Mozart,” as Ryan put it — composer John Williams. The refrain will sing works by Lennon and McCartney; Bob Dylan (‘The Times They Are a Changin’); U2 (‘MLK’) and even Taylor Swift (who collaborated with T. Bone Burnett, John Paul White and Joy Williams on ‘Safe and Sound,’ from ‘The Hunger Games’).

There’ll be music from ‘The Avengers’ and an association by Patrick Roszell entitled ‘Led Zeppelin Reunion.’ Of course, there’ll be a nod to one of many unique musical superheroes — Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart — with a efficiency of ‘Eine kleine Nachtmusik’ (Serenade No. 13 for Strings in G Major).

And rather more: “We play a selection from the Disney movie ‘Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl.’ It makes you want to go, ‘Arrgh!’ You’re on the open sea!”

Modern orchestral music — like nice music of any type — “is visceral; it’s communal,” Ryan summed up. “It’s in our DNA.”

The Valley Symphony Association presents ‘Pop Stars & Superheroes’ Saturday, April 22 at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, April 23 at 3 p.m. within the Montrose Pavilion. Visit valleysymphony.net to see this system. A hand-painted violin will likely be awarded in a drawing on the finish of the ultimate live performance — a thanks to the viewers for its participation in choosing a brand new conductor.