It took me five (5) clicks to find this $15 concert by the Chicago Composers Forum. Four clicks will get you to a week’s worth of classical and opera concerts at Time Out Chicago that numbers 15 events. (Weeks when the Chicago Symphony Orchestra isn’t touring the Far East have significantly more concerts included.) Recommended events have a red check mark, and those that are free are marked FREE.
Given that, I get a mite bit perturbed when I read things like this, and this, saying that there’s no where to find information on inexpensive classical concerts. It’s there in your local media! It’s in Chicago, it’s in New York, and everyone who writes there seems to have a blog, so it’s not as if the critics are finding rocks in Grant Park or Central Park to go hide under. (More likely in Central Park, where there actually are rocks big enough to hide under.)
The institutions put out their calendars, which we’re good at (and paid to do), the local media compile all the calendars, which they’re likewise good at (and also paid to do), so just go pick up a copy of Time Out or find it online (five clicks, baby), or the New York Times or the Chicago Tribune or the Chicago Reader or the Chicago Sun-Times or, if you’re looking for the more eclectical, Now-Is. If you find yourself out DC way, the wily guys at IonArts have you taken care of with their calendar. (Yes, IonArts is the nu-media and not the Olde Medium; my point is that these calendars already exist and that bemoaning their absence smacks of cluelessness.)
As Eddie Izzard said of the joy of archaeology, “You know that it’s there.” You don’t have to create the thing ex nihilo; it’s already done by other people.