That is about the price range of the Boston Symphony ($29-$101 or $30 to $111, depending on the day of the concert). On the other hand, the seats at Gillette Stadium, where the Patriots play, run from $59 to $125; season ticket holders pay more. And besides the bleachers and standing room, seats at Fenway Park, where the Red Sox play, range from $27 to $312 per seat.
So, it is not just the ticket prices that are making classical music audiences skew older.
I should point out that ticket sales at Symphony Hall appear to be brisk. The hall appeared sold out last month for Mahler's Third. Even when Schoenberg or Carter dominate the program, there have not been all that many empty seats.
I suspect that part of the reason for the particular decline in classical music sales is technological--if one has a good CD of, say, the Brandenburg Concertos, it is not going to wear out anytime soon--part is a reflection of the avant-garde nature of much new classical music (Thomas Ades, your ears are burning), and part is a reflection of the decline of classical radio. In Boston, for example, the outlets for classical music are (1) a commercial station with a weak signal that specializes in not playing anything challenging (aside from its broadcasts of the BSO), (2) a public radio station that plays classical from 9:00 to 4:00 on weekdays and for 11 hours on weekends; (3) Harvard's radio station, which has a very weak signal but plays a wide variety of classical stuff (WHRB is the local outlet for the Metropolitan Opera). The public radio station is starting an all-classical HD radio station--which, for classical music supporters, will be great if HD radio catches on but not so great if it does not and WGBH shifts its programming to other worthy ventures.
The problem here is that this triumvirate is about as good as one gets for classical music in the US without signing up for satellite radio.
--tim francis-wright