Classy Doesn't Mean Uptight

Always remember to have fun

Who says classical music needs to be stuffy?

Many of the all-time great composers weren’t widely understood in their own eras, as they broke new ground in music.

In the last edition of this newsletter, we even came across a conductor who, until Beyonce came along, was the all-time leader in Grammys.

“[He] looks like nothing so much as a spastic stork, bending and rearing convulsively, elbows pumping, knees popping, torso laboring until it seems almost as if he is going to tear the music from himself in a Dionysian frenzy.”

In the early 2010s, Leonard Slatkin set out to make the Detroit Symphony Orchestra “the most accessible orchestra on the planet.” He defied critics and tradition and asked audience members to turn on their mobile phones at concerts, thus exposing more people to the DSO than ever before. [Disclosure: I’m a trustee of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra]

And if you’d like the perfect representation of a non-comformist individual in a traditional environment, look no further than Gustavo Dudamel.

He is currently the Music & Artistic Director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Music Director of the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra. In 2026, he will become the Music & Artistic Director of the New York Philharmonic.

Usually, an afternoon at the symphony conjures up images of wine, cheese, and silent but rapt attention. Under Dudamel’s direction, this version of “Mambo” from Leonard Berstein’s West Side Story is more like Red Bull, Flamin’ Hot Cheetos, and a WWE match.

Just look at how, at the 1:00 mark, he turns around and engages the audience to participate.

He’s having fun, the orchestra is having a blast, and the audience is the beneficiary of great music and a truly memorable experience.

Way to make the traditional approachable, Maestro Dudamel.

And that’s Classy AF.