A radical new wave of artists is sweeping the previously elite world of classical music – with a little help from Squid Game, Dark Academia and fashion. Daisy Woodward explores how cool classical music became.
If asked to guess what people under the age of 25 listen to, it's unlikely that many of us would come up with instrumental music. Yet a survey published in December 2022 by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (RPO) found that 74% of UK residents aged under 25 were likely to tune in just this Christmas, compared to just 46% of those aged 55 and over. These figures reflect not only the broader finding of the RPO that under-35s are more likely to listen to orchestral music than their parents, but also the widespread rise in popularity of classical music in general, particularly among younger generations.
There are many reasons for this, from the playlist culture that comes from streaming platforms that make it easy for listeners to discover new artists and genres of music that suit their mood, to the solace it provided during the pandemic, not to mention the abundance classical music to pop culture hits like the Squid Game. But perhaps highest on the list is the global wave of Gen Z and young millennial classical artists who are finding new ways to be seen and heard and – just as vitally – new means of modernizing the most elite and stuffy genre of music.
Not surprisingly, social media has played a huge role in this, as a quick search of the popular TikTok hashtag “classictok” (currently at 53.8 million views) confirms. There, as on Instagram, young classical artists are using the democratizing possibilities of the digital realm to lift the heavy velvet curtains on their art form, presenting classical music and its storied history in ways that are accessible, fearless, and, most importantly, , entertaining.
For the French violinist Esther Abrami – who has more than 250,000 followers on Instagram, more than 380,000 on TikTok and was the first classical musician to be nominated in the Social Media Superstar category at the Global Awards – the journey to social media fame came from a desire to share her passion more widely. “I was studying at a top institution and most of the time I was practicing for exams, so all the joy of sharing was taken away. Then, in the very few gigs I played, there was a very specific kind of audience that wasn't very different," Abrami tells BBC Culture.
He noticed that a handful of classical musicians had taken to Instagram to expand their own reach and decided to do the same. “I started posting a few things and was surprised by the reaction I got. Suddenly you have people from all over the world listening to you and telling you that it brightens their day to see you play the violin,” he enthuses. "Open that door to a whole new world."
I ended up being influencers of opera by sharing the parts of me that I felt comfortable sharing, which is a lot – Babatunde Akinboboye
The Nigerian-American baritone and lifelong hip-hop fan Babatunde Akinboboye enjoyed a similarly rapid and surprising rise to fame on social media when he posted a video of himself singing Rossini's famous aria Largo al factotum over Kendrick Lamar's track Humble. "I was in my car and realized the two pieces were working together musically, so I started singing over the beat," he tells BBC Culture. He captured the moment on his phone and posted the video to his personal Facebook account, guessing his friends would enjoy it more than his peers at the opera. "But I went to bed, woke up the next morning and it had spread to my opera network, and far beyond," he laughs, explaining that within two days, the brand of "hip-hop" had caught his attention The Ellen Show, America's Got Talent and Time Magazine.
Both Abrami and Akinboboye came to classical music in their teens, late by conventional standards, and independently cultivated their passion for the genre. This remains a driving factor in their desire to reach new audiences, which they have achieved on an impressive scale, largely because they are themselves. “I ended up becoming an opera influencer by sharing parts of myself that I felt comfortable sharing, which is a lot,” says Akinboboye, whose playful hip-hop and opera videos and posts — taking viewers behind the scenes of a world which is still shrouded in mystery – have amassed around 688,000 TikTok followers. "It plays a role in how I relate to opera; my musical background was from hip-hop, but I still found a connection to opera and that resonated with people," he explains. "Almost every day I get a different message saying, 'I went to my first opera today.' I think it's because they see someone they feel comfortable or familiar with.”
"Complex and Deep"
Abrami, an equally enthusiastic content creator, agrees: “I think putting the face of someone who's not so far removed from it in the genre is a big thing. That's what I'm trying to do, reach out to different types of people and build bridges, to show them that this music can really move them. It's complex and deep and yes, it can take a while to understand, but once you do, it's amazing.”
People who thought they didn't care for classical music came back every day because of the power of that music - Harriet Stubbs
The British concert pianist Harriet Stubbs is another staunch advocate of classical music for modern audiences finding its own ways to attract new listeners. During the lockdown, the musician, who usually splits her time between London and New York, did a lot of 20-minute concerts from her ground-floor flat in West Kensington, opening the windows and using an amplifier to reach listeners outside. "I gave 250 concerts," Stubbs, who was awarded a British Empire Medal by the Queen for this mood-boosting act, tells BBC Culture. “I did a bunch of repertoire from my upcoming album, as well as stuff like All By Myself, which I ironically chose for this audience. And the thing is, people who thought they didn't care about classical music kept coming back every day because of the power of that music."
The fusion of classical music with other genres is an important aspect of Stubbs' practice, and indeed many others among the new generation of classical artists (see also the React to K YouTube channel, where classical artists often cover K-pop songs with clever effects or brilliant orchestral arrangements of contemporary pop songs by Kris Bowers for the much-talked-about Bridgerton soundtrack). Stubbs' groundbreaking debut album, Heaven & Hell: The Doors of Perception (2018), is inspired by William Blake and features musical icon Marianne Faithfull. "I've always wanted to connect rock and roll and classical music and put them in the same space, supported by literature and philosophy and other disciplines," she explains, adding that her next album, which she's making with pianist and former Bowie collaborator Mike Garson will be themed 'Bowie meets Rachmaninoff'.
Interestingly, the current surge of enthusiasm for classical music has branched out to become both an aesthetic and a musical movement. Digital microtrends Dark Academia and Light Academia – dedicated to romanticizing the passion for art and knowledge through images – both make compelling use of classical music to create the desired atmosphere. Rising Polish countertenor Jakub Józef Orliński, meanwhile, uses atmospheric speculatively as a powerful means to synchronize the baroque experience. Frustrated by the lack of funding to produce music videos in the classical realm, he created private sponsorship to make a 21-minute film to accompany his performance of Vivaldi's Stabat Mater in 2021. The resulting film conjures up a compelling and appropriately brutal scenario for the haunting hymn of the 18th century, which the New York Times describes that "looks like a Polish remake of The Sopranos".
“I'm really interested in storytelling. I always build a whole concept for my albums – the narrative, the photography, the videos,” Orliński tells BBC Culture. “I think now there's this whole new generation of people who really want to add to what classical music can be, to go beyond the song and challenge them. You just have to know that the end product will be good and that "Doing it will serve the story," he adds. This is certainly something Orliński has achieved in his own career: an accomplished athlete and breakdancer, impressed the critics with his Royal Opera House debut in 2022, which found him pole-dancing in a Gemini-like dress in Katie Mitchell's production of Handel's Theodora. Other recent projects have included recording baroque pieces for upcoming video games, which he says has been "an incredible experience" and is something he's been asked to do more and more often, as Metaverse points out. "Sometimes you need classical music to touch someone's soul strings – a pop song won't do."
Classical music's ongoing and often powerful intersection with pop culture is brought to the fore as part of growing interest in the genre, both within and outside its famously guarded gates. Its brand new members National Youth Orchestra of the UK have just completed a mini-tour that included a performance of Richard Strauss' Also Sprach Zarathustra, complete with the opening symphonic sunrise immortalized by Stanley Kubrick in 2001: A Space Odyssey. Last August saw the BBC Proms launch its first games-themed programme, where the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra took on some of the most beloved songs in video game history. While the recent autumn/winter collection from Acne Studios' newest sub-label Face offered one of the most direct tributes to classical music to date, featuring crewneck sweaters, tees and bags emblazoned with Handel's faces. Mozart and Bach celebrate "the idea that a passion for classical music is the most left-field move imaginable for a modern teenager."
Orliński agrees that classical music has acquired an "almost hipstery" status of late. "It's nice to go to the opera, to know something, and that's because there are a lot of young artists who are delivering music at the highest level while making it a lot of fun," he enthuses. There is, he observes, a resurgent interest in classical music figures like Maria Callas and Pavarotti, as well as "people like Yuja Wang" who are selling out concert halls, which he sees as a good omen for the art form. "We have a long way to go to grow like other genres of music, but we're moving forward." Akinboboye, too, is optimistic. "I think opera is definitely much bolder and I hope it continues because I think we can catch up," he concludes. “[Classical music should] be brave, do the scary thing. And it will succeed, because the public is ready.”
*Cover photo: Esther Abrami, Getty Images
Source: bbc.com