Classical music historian Joseph Horowitz warns technology is eroding cultural memory

In a 70-minute podcast with conductor Thomas Fortner, music historian Joseph Horowitz argues that cell phones, social media, and artificial intelligence are shortening attention spans and eroding cultural memory, threatening classical music's future. Horowitz, now scholar-in-residence at the South Dakota Symphony, cites his experience hearing Iván Fischer conduct Mahler's Third at Carnegie Hall as a rare moment of sustained listening. He notes that a university professor could no longer teach sonata form because students lack the attention span. Horowitz contrasts the Soviet model—where artists received salaries and audiences but faced ideological constraints—with the American commercial system, where artists can be ignored. He criticizes major New York institutions like the Metropolitan Opera, New York Philharmonic, and Carnegie Hall for failing to foster informed public conversation about the arts. Horowitz highlights the success of contextualized programming at the South Dakota Symphony under David Gier, which has been covered by Alex Ross and The New York Times. He also discusses his new novel 'The Disciple' about Anton Seidl and Wagnerism in New York, and his book 'The Propaganda of Freedom' on the cultural Cold War. Horowitz laments that his own refusal to use social media limits his audience but maintains that intimate communion with archival materials—like a handwritten letter by Seidl—cannot be replicated digitally.