Is the audience for classical music concerts fading out? Demographic and sociological perspectives

For decades, concerns have been raised by scholars and policy makers about the future of classical music tradition due to an ageing audience of classical concerts. Whereas sociology has a flourishing tradition on cultural participation, little research has focused on the consequences of an aging audience, keeping in mind the unique aspects of a classical music concert. This project aims to understand the driving forces behind the demographic shift in audiences using longitudinal panel and harmonized survey data, along with new survey data about concert attendance in the Netherlands. Additionally, this project will develop a predictive model to forecast the future size of classical music audiences over the coming decades. This project is funded by the NWO (grant number: 406.22.24SW.011).