Coffee, Tea, Or Verdi?

Violinist Holly Mulcahy published a warm & fuzzy style post on 5/12/2013 about a recent experience where she struck up a conversation with a fellow airline passenger and orchestra concert newbie that ultimately ended in him buying tickets for a pair of Grand Teton Music Festival (GTMF) at 30,000 feet courtesy of Wi-Fi. Apparently, the conversation progressed from food to farming, to flying, to Seal Tem 6, to Django Unchained; and the last item was all Mulcahy needed to get a foot in the door.

This fellow passenger and I probably would not find ourselves in the same social circles in everyday life. He’s a former military pilot, self proclaimed old fashioned Southerner, and a hunter during his days off. It would have been extremely easy to look at our differences and go back to my book, but instead we found a couple common grounds and he found that he indeed liked classical music.

I love selling my art and I believe that most people really do like classical music; they just don’t realize they already like it. Thanks to the movies like Django Unchained that use classical music, the books that mention classical music (the most recent is 50 Shades of Grey!), and to orchestral shows like Bugs Bunny at the Symphony, many people are exposed to classical music and find they love it.

It just takes the right reminder that classical music is wildly amazing, familiar, and enjoyable.

Mulcahy’s post reminded me of Scott Silberstein’s excellent Take A Friend To The Orchestra contribution last month and the dozens of similar stories I’ve heard from friends and colleagues over the years.

How about you, what’s your 30,000 feet story?