Writer’s Note: This piece was originally intended for publication in November, shortly after Faye Webster’s performance at Walt Disney Concert Hall. Due to unforeseen personal circumstances, its release was delayed, and with time came an unexpected challenge. Writing about a moment that felt so immediate and emotionally charged months later proved more difficult than anticipated.
Still, the heart of the experience has not faded. If anything, the distance reinforced the urgency of the message. Art is not reserved for any one generation, demographic, or dress code. It is meant to be lived in, felt, and shared. All ages deserve the chance to sit in a concert hall, to hear strings swell, to experience music in its fullest form.
That is why this story still felt necessary to tell.
LOS ANGELES, CA- There are certain records that feel intimate by design. And then there are records that, somehow, manage to feel intimate even when they are dressed in silk and strings.
When Faye Webster released Underdressed at the Symphony in 2024, it immediately struck me as one of those rare albums that lives in the quiet spaces between feelings. The arrangements were delicate but intentional. A cello line here. A flutter of flute there. Glockenspiel accents that felt less ornamental and more like emotional punctuation. Critics widely praised the album’s lush orchestration and emotional restraint, noting how it expanded her sonic palette without abandoning the vulnerability that defines her songwriting.
On record, those classical textures feel pristine. You can tell there’s careful production at play. One instrumentalist per part, layered and stacked to achieve that crisp atmosphere. It is modern craft meeting traditional instrumentation.
But hearing those songs inside Walt Disney Concert Hall, performed with the esteemed Hollywood Bowl Orchestra under the baton of Thomas Wilkins, was something else entirely.
Wilkins, who has long championed accessible orchestral programming and serves in prominent conducting roles across the country, brought a sense of warmth and clarity to the arrangements. The Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, known for bridging classical tradition with popular repertoire, felt like the perfect conduit for Webster’s music. This was not novelty orchestration. It was fully realized symphonic interpretation.
As I walked into Walt Disney Concert Hall with my photo gear in tow, I could not help but smile at the poetic symmetry of the album title. The audience looked exactly like it sounded. Hoodies. Jeans. Sneakers. A generation more accustomed to festival fields and intimate indie venues now filing into one of Southern California’s most revered concert spaces.
And I loved it.
What mattered was that they were there. That they had chosen to sit in a hall engineered for acoustic transcendence and listen to songs like “Right Side of My Neck,” “A Dream With a Baseball Player,” and “Kingston” swell behind a full orchestra.
There is something profoundly different about hearing a single cello part in your headphones versus watching an entire string section breathe together in real time. The physicality of bows rising in unison. The subtle shimmer of woodwinds cutting through the air. The way a crescendo feels less like volume and more like lift.
It is a sensory experience that algorithms cannot replicate.
At the same time, we cannot ignore the broader cultural context. Research from the National Endowment for the Arts has documented long term declines in in-person attendance at classical music and opera performances among younger adults, trends that predate the pandemic and were exacerbated by it. A 2022 NEA Survey of Public Participation in the Arts noted that overall arts attendance dropped sharply during COVID and that younger adults reported significantly higher engagement with digital media compared to live arts experiences. Meanwhile, studies from Pew Research Center have consistently shown that younger generations spend markedly more time online than older cohorts, with social media and short form video platforms dominating daily media consumption.
The result is not that young people do not care about culture. It is that culture is increasingly mediated through screens.
Scrolling is not the same as sitting in a hall designed for resonance. A 30 second clip cannot replicate the dynamic arc of a live orchestral arrangement. And yet, attendance data shows that many traditional arts institutions struggle to attract younger audiences consistently.
Which is why this night felt important.
The younger crowd filling Walt Disney Concert Hall was not there because they had season tickets to the LA Phil. They were there because they love Faye Webster. She was the bridge. Her songwriting was the invitation.
Artists like Jacob Collier have similarly merged pop sensibilities with orchestral ambition, but his audience often skews toward musicians and older listeners who already appreciate harmonic complexity. Webster’s crowd felt different. Younger. Less formally initiated into classical spaces. More likely to have discovered her through streaming playlists than conservatory programs.
And yet, there they were. Leaning forward. Sitting still. Absorbing nuance.
The Hollywood Bowl Orchestra elevated the emotional register of the setlist in ways that were impossible to ignore. “Hurts Me Too” carried a weight that bordered on cinematic. “Car Therapy” felt expansive, its emotional undercurrent amplified by live strings rather than studio layering. Even the instrumental interlude became a reminder that orchestral music is not ornamental. It is architectural.
By the time she reached “Suite: Jonny” and closed the main set with “Kingston,” the room felt unified. When she returned for the encore, “I Know You” landed with quiet authority.
I kept thinking about how rare it is now for younger audiences to sit in stillness for art that unfolds slowly. In a culture shaped by immediacy and constant notification, there is something radical about surrendering to a live symphonic arc.
Various cultural commentators have pointed to a broader decline in communal artistic experiences, noting that participation in civic and cultural institutions has decreased across multiple sectors over the past two decades. Whether measured in museum attendance, theater subscriptions, or live classical concerts, the data often reflects fragmentation. Attention has become individualized.
But what I witnessed that night complicates the narrative of disengagement. The younger generation is not incapable of appreciating orchestral music. They simply need an entry point that feels authentic to them.
Faye Webster provided that entry point.
By weaving classical instrumentation into Underdressed at the Symphony in a way that felt organic rather than ornamental, she created a sonic vocabulary that translated seamlessly to a full orchestra. By stepping onto that stage alongside the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra and Thomas Wilkins, she invited her audience into a space many of them might not have entered otherwise.
No tuxedos required. No inherited traditions necessary.
Just curiosity.
If the future of symphonic music depends on relevance, then collaborations like this are not gimmicks. They are invitations… and they are a necessity. They are reminders that orchestral sound is not relic. It is living a foundation a art scene that needs immediate nourishing now more than ever.
As I left the venue that evening, I felt something close to hope. Not because classical music needs saving, but because it needs sharing.
And on that night, beneath the soaring curves of Walt Disney Concert Hall, a generation more accustomed to scrolling chose instead to listen.
They showed up. They stayed. They experienced art.
And that matters.
Follow Faye Webster on Facebook and Instagram.
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LIVE CLIPS
@scratchedmusic #FayeWebster performing #Lifetime ♬ Lifetime – Faye Webster
@samsamsam1323 Faye Webster at Walt Disney Concert Hall in LA #fayewebster #symphony #underdressedatthesymphony #rightsideofmyneck ♬ original sound – samsamsam1323
@h0metownhero Faye Webster performing Jonny at the Walt Disney Concert Hall #fayewebster ♬ Suite: Jonny – Faye Webster
