At-Work Listening

MusicWorks recently surveyed 2,000 people in white- and blue-collar workplaces about how music affects their professional lives. Do people prefer music at work? 71 percent said yes. 77 percent said it makes them more productive. 84 percent said it improves morale.

You can see how people in various professional work environments responded here.

In KBIA's office, there's music on somewhere all the time. How about your office? Are you allowed to have music on? Does it vary from one workstation to another, or does each person choose? Is it in the foreground or background? And if it could be any kind of music, what would it be and why? We're curious ... let us know.

Live Classical Music: Bigger Than Life?

The acclaimed Ravinia Festival in Chicago has taken a page from the amphitheatre- and arena-rock playbook: this summer's performances are now augmented by a pair of Jumbotrons mounted at the sides of the stage. Concertgoers now experience not just world-class performance, but also a 300-square-foot view of conductor James Conlon, say, or pianist Yefim Bronfman.

One Chicago columnist has expressed clear distaste for this development. You can read his views, and those of a few folks who vehemently disagree with him, here.

Is it nice to have Jumbotrons at a classical event of this size and caliber of prestige? Is it, in an era in which general appreciation of classical music is said to be waning, close to a necessity? Or is it neither? What do you think?