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“Gen Z is going to find its own path,” shares famed British conductor Sir Mark Elder, continuing, “I`m sure for some of them, the idea of what`s happening in classical music is really important because my experience is that audiences are full of young people.” It is a stark difference from the time he was growing up. Elder, who was in Mumbai for the very first time, was also making his debut in the country, when he was left pleasantly surprised to see the audience for his performance at the National Centre for Performing Arts during Symphony Orchestra of India (SOI)`s Spring 2025 Season.
Elder adds, “I`m so thrilled about that because when I was young, they weren’t, and everybody thought that the youth would never get to music. I`ve spent my life trying to get young people interested in all sorts of music and I just love it when I come to do a concert and see lots of young people everywhere.” While the number of Gen-Z who witnessed him live is debatable, the crowd had an interesting mix of young and old. It is no wonder then that the British conductor is hopeful for the future of Western Classical music at a time when Gen-Z, a generation that people apparently love to hate, is confidently taking over physical and online spaces in more ways than one.
Having conducted orchestras around the world in Australia, USA and the United Kingdom, for the last five decades, Elder says a live symphony orchestra is a powerful emotional language, which can be loud and soft too, “It is the only large-scale musical activity that happens in the world without microphones. As a young person growing up today, all the music they hear, whatever it is and however much they love it, it`s microphoned.” On the other hand, he says in a live symphony orchestra what you see is what you get. “I always say that to young children, ‘You must come and listen. Come on, sit near the front. They say, oh, it`s so loud. Yeah, but there are no microphones. It`s live. The player sits there and makes the sound for you. That`s part of the appeal. You see the moment of creation. I think that`s wonderful to watch people create.”
Showcasing this very artistry, Elder conducted Mumbai’s very own Symphony Orchestra of India of whom he had heard a lot about from his colleagues in the past. Doing it for the very first time and decided to mix it up by playing three pieces, one of which was Beethoven’s third symphony. He explains, “I was asked whether or not I would do the third symphony of Beethoven because the orchestra hadn’t played it for a long time, and it is a very important piece. It is a very brave and incredibly original piece. If you know the first and the second, the difference is immense, longer and louder, and daring, and the music is heroic and very hard to play. I thought it would be a great challenge for the orchestra to do it and as a way for us to get to know each other.” While the other two pieces are also beautiful and fine pieces, Elder seemingly has an affinity to showcase a challenging piece, and in the process produces a spectacle, which he so easily did, with his dramatic movements and his child-like exuberance.
Interestingly, music and Sir Mark Elder have been inseparable for more than 70 years now. He reminisces, “When I was very young, in the 1950s, I sang as a soprano in a cathedral choir.So, my introduction to music was through the ritual of the English church, singing some of the greatest music that has ever been written in England, which was wonderful music and I loved it.” Once the British conductor became aware of the profession, there was no looking back, even as he dabbled with the piano and bassoon, the latter of which he sold as soon as he started conducting. It feels like being a conductor is sacred for the septuagenarian, who fell in love with it very early on, and has been honing his craft ever since then, the passion for which could be seen when he took to the stage for the performance.
So, even after all this time, what inspires him to continue conducting after all this time? He concludes, “Music is like spiritual food. I find that music gives me great strength. It gives me great hope for the future. It gives me incredible pleasure and doesn`t terrify me. When I was young, starting out, it was frightening. It nerved me but I`m not nervous now. I`m just enjoying it. So, without it, I would be nothing.”
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