Cheap Classical Music in Houston

Classical music has a bad rap, some of which is deserved. After all, who really wants to listen to the slow, soft harpsichord-loaded music that trickles out of bookstore speakers, or to the stuff advertised on television to make you relax?

Classical music, like any other music, is best experienced live. At it's best, classical music is powerful with incredible emotional depth. On stage are almost 100 instruments played by almost 100 musicians who each represent the culmination of tens of thousands of hours of training and practice. Also, there is a gong.

The problem is that getting a good seat can be expensive – up to $100 each. And if you're like Houstonist, you don't have that kind of money. Fortunately, Houston has three great options for cheap classical music:

• Wavelength is the Houston Symphony's attempt to get younger people (ages 18-29) interested in going to their concerts. While they pull out some of the usual young-person-marketing tricks – such as a blog – the main draw is the $8 tickets. If you're lucky, you can get good tickets on the upper orchestra level that usually costs up to $43 a pop. The downside is that the Symphony only sets aside Wavelength tickets for a fraction of the concerts, and rarely for the more popular composers (Yo-Yo Ma).
• Houstonist believes that the city woefully underappreciates Rice's Shepherd School of Music's concerts for several reasons, including: (1) the musicians are some of the best music students in the country; (2) the venue, Stude Hall, is small – only 1,000 seats – which means you are surrounded by sound and are so close to the stage that you can see individual musicians' faces; (3) you can go as casual as you want and still outdress the t-shirted students in the audience; and (4) all the concerts (with a few exceptions) are free. Free. (February schedule)
• There's also the Houston Civic Symphony. While we haven't attended one of their concerts, we appreciate their non-traditional (small) venues and their interesting repertoire. (Schedule)

Upcoming events:

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Photo: Flickr user gizks.