Music-less education?

The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra performed Saturday at the IU Auditorium. When I bought my ticket to the concert, I had no intention of writing a column afterward. As I scanned the splattering of empty seats in the auditorium, however, I changed my mind, disturbed that even this prestigious orchestra could not draw a full house. I couldn't help but wonder: What does this turnout say about our society? Have we lost our appreciation for the finer modes of artistic expression?\nGoing to events like this one often brings back memories. I played the piano for eight years and the oboe for five. To go even further back, I remember staring at the pallid ceiling of my bedroom when I was 8 years old, while the colors of Beethoven or Bach danced through my ears. In my early teens, I wanted to become a professional musician. Those plans have changed, obviously, but I still enjoy listening to Mussorgsky whenever the mood strikes, or to Pachelbel whenever I can't fall asleep.\nI don't know if I would have this kind of appreciation for music had I never played an instrument. Certainly I enjoyed the genre before I ever started taking part in it, but there is something about being able to read music, and even more so, knowing how difficult it is to be able to play, which makes the experience of listening to it even richer. My ears never fail to perk up whenever they capture the distinct, nasal sound of an oboe solo.\nAs a former pianist, I was thrilled to see that Sergei Rachmaninoff, a Russian pianist, was among the composers on the program for the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra.\nIn recent years, grade school music programs have become an endangered species. It's understandable that schools are having difficulty paying for these programs, considering the drastic budget cuts education in general has suffered. My high school, for example, reached a point last year when it could not even hire new teachers to replace those who retired. It's only natural for schools in such desperate situations to cut what are sometimes deemed "superfluous" programs.\nI am fully aware that my collection of classical CDs is larger than the collection of the average 21-year-old. At the same time, I know that my collection does not match the vastness of those compilations of true aficionados. I guess what I'm trying to prove is that while I certainly have an appreciation for classical music, I'm not attached to the point of bias.\nI am a strong advocate of the idea of a liberal arts education, and that means everything from literature and history to art and, of course, music. Exposure to all of these areas allows us to uncover the works of others and to think about them with some degree of understanding. Music has the ability to express ideas and emotions that words, or even visual arts, cannot -- and cutting school music programs deprives students of the opportunity to discover this. Through these cuts, we are depriving groups such as the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra of a truly appreciative audience that can grasp the magnitude of its accomplishments.