Here’s a familiar scene of a night at the symphony: a perfectly disciplined audience sitting in complete silence for more than two hours with nothing but music. There’s no food, no chit chat, no movie screen with flickering images to keep them awake. With this generation’s reduced attention span from heavy exposure to short-form content, I can’t name many other instances where people are willing to pay hundreds of dollars to just… sit.

That’s what makes classical music so special — it’s nearly impossible to grasp what’s going on in a piece with just a few listens, unlike the catchy tunes on TikTok or the top hits we hear on the radio.

Emphasis on live performance is also exclusive to the classical genre. Any music lover knows a live concert experience is miles away from the sound-engineered and heavily manipulated technological creations available on YouTube. But it’s even more pertinent in classical music: the survival and endurance of the genre is largely dependent on the magic of the live experience.

Today’s digitalized world threatens to erase the live experience. There’s a bigger emphasis on immaculately curated recordings, polished and perfected through multiple takes. I fear that one day, the excitement of authenticity and real-time performance will be completely replaced by the expectation of feigned perfection brought about by digital enhancement.

Some of the world’s most prestigious orchestras and concert halls have emerged with a new alternative following in the footsteps of the Berlin Philharmonic: a “digital concert hall.” The “hall” offers a paid subscription to the orchestra’s full-length live and archived performances with high-resolution sound and professional videography. Medici.tv, Deutsche Grammophon’s STAGE+ and Carnegie Hall+ are notable examples of such.

In the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, the shift seemed only positive. And for a time, it was.

I’m grateful for this online shift — it’s exposed more of the general public to classical music and integrated pieces into pop culture, like TikTok-trending Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2 or Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker Suite.

The concert hall is a temple where the special allocation of time and adherence to concert etiquette demonstrates a certain respect for the musicians and the music being played.

We are creating accessible methods for people to be exposed to classical music, but we’re taking away a feature exclusive to this genre. The magical blend of the strings and resonant booms from the brass raise the hairs on my arms in live performances far more often than a 20-second Instagram reel of Hilary Hahn sawing away at the violin. The experience is simply irreplicable.

Though virtual streams offer cheaper and more accessible alternatives, they render concert halls useless, diminishing profit for symphony orchestras. It’s one of the reasons why classical music was in deep trouble during the pandemic — orchestras were holding on by a thread, and many are still in recovery.

Having attended the symphony’s concerts for several years, it’s evident that people are unwilling to pay hundreds for programs they’re unfamiliar with, keeping classical audiences limited to a small circle of wealthy, old, white people. I’ve talked to friends who want to attend concerts, take a look at the prices online, then close their computers laughing in shock.

For spots further back in the hall, why not drop prices and, as a result, diversify audiences, rather than leaving precious seats empty? It seems a bit elitist, if you ask me — welcoming the rich who are able to pay hundreds and wasting seats that, with more affordable prices, could easily be filled by the next generation of music appreciators.

It’s not that orchestras should stop advocating for classical music’s integration into modern media. Rather, they should maintain the genre’s online presence while finding methods to enhance the in-person experience.

Right now, the balance is tipped too far in favor of gaining online traction. There are plenty of options to attract more audiences to their concerts, including experimenting with programming and creating more interactive events. It’s time to innovate classical music’s most defining feature: live performance.

Alice Oh is a Medill and Bienen sophomore. She can be contacted at aliceoh2027@u.northwestern.edu. If you would like to respond publicly to this op-ed, send a Letter to the Editor to opinion@dailynorthwestern.com. The views expressed in this piece do not necessarily reflect the views of all staff members of The Daily Northwestern.