Sadly, HRO members say, if someone has grown up around exclusively pop music, the whole idea of classical can seem intimidating and alien. Members of HRO, collectively indistinguishable from their “normal” classmates except for their devotion to classical music, insist that such fears should be shed. The music, they plead, should not be thought of as academic but visceral—appealing for the same reasons as, say, something like “Signs.”

The pretentious, stuffy experts that classical music seems to be associated with are far less desirable to Balliett, who has an offer to join the Civic Orchestra of Chicago upon graduation.

“There’s a lot of people, not necessarily at Harvard, who have a very narrow-minded view, who think that if people don’t know that you’re not supposed to clap between movements then they shouldn’t go to concerts,” Balliett says. “I think that’s ridiculous. You have to ask them, why are you performing? Are you just playing for each other? You could do that in your dorm room—you don’t need to rent Sanders Theater to do it.”

THERE ARE NO CHILDREN HERE

At last Friday’s performance, the entire front section of the Sanders main floor was filled with grown-up folks from the Pierian Foundation, HRO’s alumni support network. In addition to simply coming to the concerts, the Pierians provide funding for the orchestra and help with decision making and logistical planning.

The Foundation takes its name from the Pierian Sodality of 1808—HRO’s original moniker when it was founded almost 200 years ago. Many of the Pierians have season subscriptions, and take pride in coming to every single HRO performance.

David D. Moir (GSA ’93) of Jamaica Plains, for instance, whose wife is the Pierian Foundation’s secretary, says he’s been coming for the last fifteen years to enjoy the music and support the students.

Many among HRO’s dedicated fan-base can make similar claims, but as HRO’s musicians have learned all too well, a small group of devotees can’t fill 1,200 seats.

Collins repeatedly stressed the importance of publicity during his rehearsal-break briefings, recruiting people to put up posters, table outside the Science Center, and sell tickets to friends. Collins, for his part, drove around Boston posting flyers at other colleges, including the Berklee School of Music and the New England Conservatory, where classical music is predictably more popular.

Interest at Harvard itself usually just isn’t enough to fill a concert hall as big as Sanders, he explains, and the bulk of HRO’s audience has been coming from outside the University walls.

Getting to people who don’t usually listen to classical music, orchestra members say, is absolutely crucial, but convincing such outsiders that a two-hour concert is worth their time on a Friday night can be a hard sell.

The evening of last Friday’s concert, Barlow led a small group of HRO musicians onto the balcony above Annenberg to play a short, dramatic song for the freshmen below in order to advertise the show. The students clapped enthusiastically, but the student responsible for selling tickets on the main floor came to rehearsal complaining that she hadn’t sold a single one.

A lot of Harvard students, according to Nathan I. Burke ’05, “wouldn’t go if you paid them.” As it stands, most of the undergrads that come to HRO’s concerts are either friends or relatives of someone who is playing, or members of one of the other classical groups on campus such as the Bach Society, the Mozart Society, or the Collegium Musicum choir.

According to Collins, their first three shows of the year enjoy better attendance, primarily because they are timed to coincide with campus-wide events like junior parents weekend which flood the campus with willing and curious strangers.

The fact is though, HRO members concede, classical music just isn’t that popular among young people anymore, even though Harvard is considered to be relatively cultured.