“Each concert is like a piece of a jigsaw puzzle,” Levine says. “You can’t get it in one hearing.”

Fineberg says that many students he sees at Harvard are reluctant to go to classical music concerts because they feel they are unable to fully understand the type of music being performed.

“Harvard students are so into proving everything…there’s not always a message to be extracted,” Fineberg says. “Get over the conception that there is something to get when you hear a piece.”

He says that an adventurous crowd, coupled with interesting programming by orchestras, could lead to a renewal in the popularity of classical music.

“Classical music used to be about status, class…now, there are so many opportunities for entertainment that it is about competition,” he says. “It has to be like when you go to a club—you don’t know what you’ll hear but there’s this sense of discovery that is so important.”

The BSO is also trying to draw in young people with discounts and other incentives.

Boston-area college students can purchase a $25 “College Card” that gives them access to 14 concerts over the symphony’s season. The concerts include open rehearsals during the day as well as regular weekend concerts.

For concertgoers between the ages of 21 and 38, the BSO offers a program entitled “Repartee” that offers subscribers discounted concert passes. And if the discount isn’t enough to convince young people, the BSO throws in pre-concert cocktail parties with hors d’oeuvres and private, pre-concert lectures with BSO performers and conductors.

With these combined endeavors, officials at the BSO remain optimistic and say that their efforts are seeing some results.

“I’m often positively surprised,” Steinbeis says. “We are getting a lot of young people.”