From St. Vincent to Stravinsky

College students are notorious file-sharers, gladly swapping music and movies online. But 19-year-old Harvard student and musician Matt Aucoin argues in The Boston Sunday Globe that Boston's college students, and young people in general, are so tied to iPods and mass culture that they miss out on the amazing wealth of classical music and opera in the Boston area. And price isn't the issue - The Boston Symphony Orchestra offers a $25 College Card, guaranteeing access to 15 BSO concerts, or less than $2 per show.

Aucoin challenges college-age youths to add classical music to their cultural repertoire, and listen to Mozart and Brahms with the same openness they afford to Animal Collective and Grizzly Bear. But he also challenges classical institutions to find a way to appeal to this younger audience. And he questions what classical music needs to do to survive as the culture is constantly changing and the generation gap is growing wider and wider.

(Photo by Chris Devers via Flickr/Creative Commons)