[S Clark]

Thought I'd get a guess at how many classical fans we have at AC. 

[Elizabeth]

I started loving Classical music when I got my first real stereo, at age 15.
I joined the Columbia Classical Record Club. (to get lots of free records)
The following Fall when I wrote an essay for 'What I did this Summer' about learning about Classical music and Liking Beethoven.. My High School English teacher called me out in class for LYING in my essay. (No way could I be telling the truth about liking Beethoven at age 15 in 1964..??)

Anyway, fast forward 50 years... I STILL like Classical music.
I am not an expert on it. Unlike some folks.
But I do enjoy it often.
For the survey I did the 'math challenge'.. As I never come over here to read or post anything about Classical music. I would say I am not interested in READING or posting about Classical music.
I own about 1,500 Classical LPs and about 150 Classical CDs.

To compare I own an equal number (actually a few more, but not a lot more)  each of Jazz and Rock LPs.
But way more Jazz and Rock CDs than Classical CDs.

Listening is maybe 2/5 Classical, 2/5 Jazz. 1/5 Rock.

[Wind Chaser]

I listen to it periodically, when I'm in the mood for something different, or I when just want something innocuous in background to mute the silence.

[FullRangeMan]

Classical music is the beginning of Western music and the sea where many audiophiles arrive.
A late friend classical music producer told me that anyone teenager who started listening to music with aggressive rock as hardcore/metal never will like classical music.

[Wind Chaser]

I once heard someone say that if Beethoven were alive today, he'd be listening to the likes of Led Zep. The great composure's of classical music didn't have access to modern tech and electric instruments, but if they did, one has to wonder what they might have done.

[LesterSleepsIn]

I have about 2,000 classical vinyl lps, 500 classical cds, 350 opera box sets vinyl, 55 opera laserdiscs, 1,000 jazz cds and 200 jazz vinyl lps. I once had much more jazz on vinyl but about 30 years ago some nice folks broke into the house and decided that they need them more than I did. I now have only about 50 rock lps and an equal number of rock cds. My brother keeps me informed about rock music so I don't feel the need to keep current. But most of my listening now is classical and jazz. I have found that deep classical listening has greatly lessened my ability to appreciate rock music. However, I do own David Bowie's Blackstar - the only Bowie in the collection - which I find to be truly amazing, if not transcendental.

[andolink]

Classical music is 98% of my listening.  I've been fanatical about it since age 12 (45 years).

[FullRangeMan]

I once heard someone say that if Beethoven were alive today, he'd be listening to the likes of Led Zep. The great composure's of classical music didn't have access to modern tech and electric instruments, but if they did, one has to wonder what they might have done.

Some would do Pink Floyd others Cluster.
Klaus Schulze seted the standard for Classical/Electronic composer since 1970s.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ucqW2QNHno

[Carl V]

Equal Distribution of Jazz/Rock/Blues/Classical/Blue grass/world

No expert in any genre.

To many of my Aficionado friends I am part of the unwashed 
I have a good many samplers, I often only play one maybe two movements,
I have many Aria Soloists albums for Opera, I have playlists with only partial
albums. I usually only listen to Album sides uninterrupted if it's LP.

[S Clark]

I started loving Classical music when I got my first real stereo, at age 15....

And all these years I thought you were a 95% rock and roll girl.   

[rpf]

I check it out occasionally but it's very quiet here, so I spend more time on classical music fora with greater activity. Probably 2/3 of my approximately 3.5TB of music is classical.

[Tyson]

It would make sense that I love classical music, since I'm the facilitator of this circle

[richidoo]

I was just a casual pop-classical listener, Gould, Holst, Copland, etc.   Then in 2005 I heard Pacifica Quartet's CD of Dvorak on the radio. That blew me away so started devouring Dvorak and shopping for bigger speakers to play symphonies well, that's how I fell into this hifi quicksand.

[HsvHeelFan]

My musical journey started when I was 4 years old.  Primary music listened to at that time:

1.  Bruno Walter conducting the CBS orchestra performing Beethoven 5th and 6th Symphonies.
2.  Dave Brubeck Quartet - Live at the Newport Jazz Festival in '58
3.  The Oscar Peterson trio with the Russ Garcia Big Band - Swingin' Brass
4.  Miles Davis - Kind of Blue

When I was in the 3rd grade, I was sent to piano lessons, which I continued through high school.

When I was in the 7th grade,  I picked started playing Tuba in the junior high school band.

In the 70's,  I started listening to more jazz and rock and roll.   I still listened to classical music while performing classical music is a variety of bands, wind ensembles or orchestras.

In March of '84,  I heard a compact disc player and was hooked.  No more having to clean records and worry about cartridges and pops and crackles.

I still listen to classical music, but generally nothing earlier than Beethoven.  Oh,  I despise J.S. Bach.  Hated playing it on piano.  Still hate playing it in Brass Quintet's.   Classical music is still around 40% of what I listen to.

My main instrument is a mid 70's vintage Miraphone model 186 4 rotary valve tuba.

HsvHeelFan

[S Clark]

So many of us that have a few miles on us heard tons of classical as background in cartoons when we were kids.  Liszt, Grieg, Wagner, and so many others.  To this day, I suspect more people could identify the Lone Ranger theme than those that identifiy the William Tell Overture. 

[LesterSleepsIn]

So many of us that have a few miles on us heard tons of classical as background in cartoons when we were kids.  Liszt, Grieg, Wagner, and so many others.  To this day, I suspect more people could identify the Lone Ranger theme than those that identifiy the William Tell Overture.

And how many of us can hear the William Tell, Thieving Magpie and Beethoven's 9th without thinking of A Clockwork Orange or On The Beautiful Blue Danube and Also Sprach Zarathustra without thinking of 2001: A Space Odyssey ... or indirectly, David Bowie?

[Photon46]

My mom was a classical pianist, organist, and violinist so my first musical memories are of classical. I've always loved that type of music. Like every body else my age I loved rock and pop once the Beatles and Mersey Beat thing got popular. When I was in my later teens I began to appreciate jazz, although it took longer to appreciate some of the more angular and avant garde jazz forms. Most of my listening is "classical" although that's a really limiting and inaccurate term for the full range of concert music for small and large ensembles. I like everything from early vocal work in the Renaissance to modern classical like Rautavaara, Hovhanness, etc. I also like Chinese, Balinese, and Indian classical music.

[dB Cooper]

I don't fit into any of the poll options. I visit AC frequently and the classical threads occasionally. My listening is roughly 50% jazz, 20% classical, 30% anything else. I find the classical oriented threads useful for general learning and seeking recommendations.

Semi-unrelated tangent: Just learned about bachtrack.com, a website with lots of (free!) hi-def videos of various orchestral ensembles playing various pieces. They stream some live concerts too. Definitely recommended.

[dB Cooper]

Classical music is the beginning of Western music and the sea where many audiophiles arrive.
A late friend classical music producer told me that anyone teenager who started listening to music with aggressive rock as hardcore/metal never will like classical music.

I personally think metal causes and/or aggravates brain damage (just KIDDING), but I grew up listening to rock, and, although it took years, I now enjoy some classical (I also was introduced to jazz fairly young, which I think helped.) In my early twenties, I decided I 'should' listen to classical because it was Important, but I was forcing it down my own throat and wasn't really ready for it. So I gave it up for a long long time. I came back to it in the last few years when I was finally ready to 'take it in'. Even now though, I gravitate towards the more modern stuff than the 'powdered wig era'. Frank Zappa once said he disliked the music of that era because it "reminds me of painting by numbers". I don't feel that strongly about it, but I do understand what he's saying- it's a little 'neat and tidy' for someone who grew up listening to blues guitar stranglers bending notes thru overdriven tube amps. So maybe that's what your friend was saying. Unlike HsvHeelFan, I do like some Bach though. Different strokes I guess.

[FullRangeMan]

And how many of us can hear the William Tell, Thieving Magpie and Beethoven's 9th without thinking of A Clockwork Orange or On The Beautiful Blue Danube and Also Sprach Zarathustra without thinking of 2001: A Space Odyssey ... or indirectly, David Bowie?

David who? Hovhanness is superb, much better than Robert Simpson.