Natalie Treybal has dedicated her life to performing. There is nothing she loves more than being on stage and showcasing her talent. “Art is primarily most important to me as a means of connection,” Treybal explained. “It has brought me some of the most important people in my life. Also, it’s just a valuable creative outlet. Sometimes [I] feel boxed in and I’m able to express myself.”
The 23-year-old is a member of a handful of bands, including lead guitar for the indie rock band Geskle. When she isn’t on stage, she’s at the foot of one supporting her fellow artists anytime she can, finding joy in almost all genres.
But for someone who’s devoted so much of their life to supporting the arts, “I don’t know anything about ballet or opera,” says Treybal. “People [my age] aren’t really going.”
It’s a testament that has echoed throughout her generation. Earlier this year 30-year -old actor Timothée Chalamet made similar comments and was met with a wave of backlash.
Treybal identified two major factors in why she thinks this indifference towards the finer performing arts has become so widespread.
Growing up, spending her formative years in rural Vermont, she did not have access to as many opportunities to attend, and even now, after moving to a city with world-class theater, ballet, and classical music, she cannot afford to attend any of it.
In 2020, The New York Times found that the average age of the audience for the New York Philharmonic and the Metropolitan Opera was 57. “It’s become a joke that [my classmates and I] are the youngest people there willingly going,” says Faith Willett, a viola player who recently received her master’s degree from Queens College’s School of Music.
The seats look the same all over the country. After attending a show at Symphony Hall here in Boston, a 24-year-old theatergoer, Jess Buckley, was asked how many people her age were at the show. She laughed and said, “Oh my god, none, none, literally not one.”
However, at least in Boston, there’s an effort to bring the average age of a symphony spectator down.
The city’s mayor, Michelle Wu, has taken it upon herself to reignite interest in today’s youth in all the arts Boston has to offer. In 2024, the mayor concluded her State of the City speech by announcing a new initiative called Boston Family Days. She explained it as “a new program for kids all across Boston, to feel at home in the places that show them the world.”
Originally, it was a program that allowed Boston Public Schools students and their families free admission to a handful of museums, like the Museum of Fine Arts and Children’s Museum, on two specific days a month. The program’s popularity has helped it quickly grow to include almost every major museum in the city.
Then, starting this past October, the program began to include the performing arts. Now, 23 institutes in the greater Boston area have partnered with the city to give out tickets to Boston’s youth.
Berklee School of Music and the Wheelock Family Theater have put on shows specifically for the program, while theaters like the Emerson and the Boch have offered tickets to their marquee productions.
In its first 24 months, the Boston Family Days initiative gave out 75,000 tickets to various institutions. The program’s live performance branch distributed an additional 6,000 seats to live performances in its first three months. The program has given opportunities to young people across the city to watch world-class performances that they otherwise wouldn’t have had access to.
While the program sells out an “industry-leading 80-100%” of the tickets offered, Boston Family Days is only available to students in Boston’s Public Schools’ K-12 age range. That leaves students outside of the city, college students and young professionals to pay for these cultural institutions. Boston is consistently ranked among the most expensive cities in the country; without this program, most people within these groups have nowhere near the extra funds to attend these shows.
After attending the Symphony, Buckley did recall seeing a fair number of families. “I’d say 50% were in the geriatric age, but maybe 30% were couples with their kids.” Presumably, some of those families are there thanks to the Family Days initiative.
Buckley originally started going to the Pops with her grandfather when she was growing up. Now that she lives in the city, she tries to continue the tradition. But “between good seats and dinner,” it isn’t cheap, she said. Buckley, a nurse at Mass General, explains it as “a nice once-a-year thing to do.”
Treybal wishes she could explore more of what the city has to offer, but “I don’t have the money to seek out something that I don’t have an incredible interest in,” says the struggling musician, “but if the opportunity was given to me, I would go.”
Even Willett, who describes classical music as “my entire life,” has trouble affording to go. “On average, I’ll go to one or two orchestra shows a year,” at the Rigsfield Symphony, her local ensemble outside New York. When she was in school, “The maybe once or twice I’ve gone to the New York Phil on my own dime, it’s been expensive.” That’s in reference to the rush tickets – discounted last-minute tickets to shows often only offered to students.
To see the Boston Ballet’s most popular show, The Nutcracker, a single ticket starts at $140. For that price, someone could instead take the commuter rail to Wachusett Mountain, rent skis, and get an entire day lift pass. Or they could walk a block to the AMC and see seven movies. Or if they’re hungry, they could head to Tasty Burger, get a large shake, a large fry, and 14 Big Tastys.
Tickets closer to the stage for The Nutcracker easily reach upwards of $400. The average ticket to see the Boston Lyric Opera at the Emerson Theatre is $265. Or 44 and 29 Big Tastys, respectively.
These prices are simply unaffordable to a majority of young people, which is why the Boston Ballet offers a range of discounts. They host college nights, where Boston’s college students can get $35 tickets. Or they offer limited rush tickets before a show starts to the students of the city for $30, cash. Students are also able to purchase discounted subscriptions to the Ballet’s season starting at $120 for three shows.
Other art centers in the city offer similar discounts. Many of the art museums in the city, like the MFA and the Institute of Contemporary Art, are free to college students. The Boston Symphony offers a $35 annual student pass that allows those with it to purchase $5 tickets. The American Repertory Theater offers $38 tickets to people 25 and under, compared to a regular admission starting at $73. Even the Coolidge Corner Theater, a cinema known for showing independent and arthouse films, offers $3 off for students.
Treybal said it’s not just the price that has young people detached from the fine performing arts. “We’re exposed to a lot less of that type of music when we’re growing up. I was raised on a lot of Fleetwood Mac, Beatles, Bob Dylan, ” she said.
Several organizations across the city have stepped up to not only get young people to come see their shows but also actively have a hand in creating them.
Willett, who works in youth music education, agrees that not being raised on the symphony has an impact on young people’s interest, but catering to a modern taste might be the key to revitalizing interest.
“Classical music, it’s not always the most relatable to children. Classical music is a really important foundation, but music educators should try to incorporate popular music and the music kids can relate to.” Willett explained, “My students are doing Pirates of the Caribbean.” Another teacher is doing “Popular” from the show “Wicked.”
The Boston Lyric Opera has a program that allows students to do that as well. Students at a handful of schools in greater Boston have the opportunity to take a class that will first bring them to an Opera performance at BLO’s brand new theater, so they can understand the basics of the medium.
A teaching artist from the company will then come into their class and, along with their teacher, help the students create their own opera. In one fifth-grade class, the students are putting together an opera based on the Apollo 11 mission with both original music and music from that era.
A younger class is using the classic children’s book, “The Day the Crayons Quit,” as a basis for their show while last year, a high school class wrote one about a battle between the Boston Celtics and Denver Nuggets.
Some schools go as far as to put the operas into production for the school’s community. Boston Arts Academy, the only public arts school in the city, plans to showcase theirs at the end of the school year.
“Seeing the authentic excitement from a group of kids sharing their own work that they put together, that’s why I, as an adult, do what I do,” said the director of education at BLO, Morgan Beckford. “Getting to see them experience that joy can really be impactful and transformative.”
The American Repertory Theater has recently launched a program called Learning Labs, where groups of public school students go to A.R.T. performances free of charge. Along with seeing the debut of potential Broadway hits, the students also engage in several workshops that help them better understand the work that goes into a production and the concepts each specific show conveys. The students are also able to give feedback, and A.R.T. has taken these critiques and made adjustments to their shows.
“We really try to put the students’ voice first,” said PR director Rebecca Curtis. “We really try to lead from the students’ perspective and let them run with it.”
The program has grown so popular that it was a contributing factor for the production company to build an entire new theater. With this bigger stage and more seats, the A.R.T. is planning to double the number of schools participating in the Learning Labs.
The Wheelock Family Theater has one of the longest histories of youth theater education in the city, spanning almost 50 years. The Wheelock has educational programs for all K-12 age groups. They have programs in theater, musical theater, and theater tech and design. They have programs like after-school classes and summer-long camps. Every program ends with the students putting on a self-produced play. Sometimes, like in April of this year’s production of Charlotte’s Web, the students have the opportunity to act alongside professionals for the Boston community.
On top of all that the theater does to educate today’s youth, “I think it’s pretty special that we’ve never turned a student away for an inability to pay full tuition,” says the Wheelock director of education and community engagement, Jeri Hammond. Thanks to the company’s alumni, supporters of local theater, and Boston University, the Wheelock has been able to offer every student who wanted to learn access to unmatched theater education.
However, these three programs, along with many more put on by institutes throughout the city, and even the Boston Family Days program, are only available to K-12 students. Educational programs and free access to most of the city’s art institutes aren’t available to the estimated 250,000 college students living around Boston.
Some institutes do have free or discounted tickets for college students, but almost none have benefits for the even greater number of recent grads and young professionals in the area who are also struggling to make ends meet.
But according to Treybal, that isn’t a problem. According to her, today’s young people prefer an intimate concert, usually in someone’s basement rather than a night at the opera. “I think it has a lot to do with the community aspect it provides you with. One of my favorite things about house shows is that they feel like a party, but one where you know you have at least one thing in common with everyone in that room.”
“A lot of the time it’s a Venmo at the door, a sliding scale, kind of like, paying whatever you can afford. Plus, a lot of the time, the profits go to helping people in the community in need. Why not pay $5 for a show? They’re more accessible and affordable than the opera.” She goes on, “Why would I pay for that when my friends aren’t there?”
