First published on Medium, July 2025. This is a revised and expanded version for the Weekender.
You have heard classical music today, whether you realise it or not.
It was there in the Netflix trailer that made your heart race, the advertisement that brought tears to your eyes, or the video game that transported you to another world. Classical music surrounds us, weaving through our daily experiences like an invisible thread and yet many people maintain an arm’s length relationship with it, as though it belongs to someone else’s life rather than their own.
I want to make the case that it belongs in yours. Not as a cultural obligation or a mark of sophistication, but as a form of medicine without side effects, a cognitive enhancer without chemicals, and a stress reliever available at the touch of a button.
The punk violinist who kicked the doors open #
The perception that classical music is “not for people like me” has a history and it has been actively and successfully challenged.
Nigel Kennedy, with his trademark mohawk and punk-inspired stage attire, became the first artist to break the exclusive walls of the classical private music club and invite a wider audience in. His 1989 recording of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons sold over two million copies and earned a place in the Guinness Book of Records as one of the best-selling classical recordings of all time. The UK Parliament congratulated him for attracting young people to great works of classical music by dispensing with the starched shirts that had alienated so many people from classical composers for so long.
Kennedy’s philosophy is worth remembering: “There are two types of music: good and bad. And that’s it.” He didn’t lower the quality of the music. He removed the pretension that surrounded it. Those are entirely different things and confusing them is how classical music acquired its undeserved reputation for exclusivity.
Classic FM, launched in 1992, continued what Kennedy started. Now reaching approximately 5.7 million listeners weekly, its mission is simple: to share classical music with the widest possible audience, no matter who they are or where they are. During the first months of 2020, Classic FM welcomed 196,000 new listeners, with people turning to classical music as a means of finding solace, reassurance, and relaxation during a highly uncertain time. When barriers are removed, people find their way to classical music naturally. The music itself is never the obstacle.
What neuroscience has confirmed #
Modern research has done something rather satisfying: it has given scientific language to what music lovers have always known intuitively.
A 2015 study from the University of Helsinki found that listening to just 20 minutes of classical music daily can modulate genes that regulate brain function and memory, noting an increase in dopamine secretion and synapse function that also slows the brain’s ageing process. Research from France’s University of Caen found that students who attended a lecture accompanied by classical music scored significantly higher on a post-lecture test than those in silence.
The physical benefits are equally striking. A 2022 study reported by the National Institutes of Health details how music lowers blood pressure and heart rates through the vagus nerve; the main nerve of the body’s parasympathetic nervous system which responds to musical vibrations by triggering the body to relax. Research published in Deutsches Äerzteblatt International found that individuals who listened to Mozart and Strauss experienced significantly lower blood pressure and heart rates. Intensive care patients who listened to Mozart and Beethoven demonstrated decreased heart rates and improved oxygen saturation, leading to quicker post-stress recovery.
For mental health, researchers at Shanghai Jiaotong University School of Medicine found classical music to be a powerful antidote to depression, with improvement in symptoms directly linked to how much a person enjoys what they are hearing. The mechanism is neurobiological: classical music increases serotonin production in brain regions associated with reward and mood regulation.
Classical music, it turns out, is not a luxury. It is a health intervention available to anyone with a pair of ears and a streaming account.
The film score you already love #
One of the strongest arguments for classical music’s relevance is one most people haven’t consciously considered: it is already your favourite soundtrack.
John Williams, Hans Zimmer, Ennio Morricone; the composers whose film scores have moved you most deeply are working in a tradition rooted directly in the classical repertoire. The emotional architecture of a film score draws on the same harmonic language, the same orchestral textures, the same structural principles as Beethoven, Brahms, and Shostakovich. When you feel the hairs rise on the back of your neck at the opening of Star Wars or the closing scene of Schindler’s List, you are responding to classical music. You just didn’t know it had that name.
Cross-cultural research comparing Western audiences with Mbenzélé Pygmies from the Congo rainforest found that listeners from very different groups responded to the excitement or calm of orchestral music in remarkably similar ways. The emotional language of classical music is not culturally specific. It is human.
Choral singing adds a new dimension #
I’m a choral singer and mention this not to recommend singing to anyone who hasn’t chosen it, but because the choir experience has given me a dimension of the classical music argument that the listening research alone doesn’t quite capture.
Research into community choirs has identified physical benefits including improved breathing, posture, and lung capacity; psychological benefits including enhanced mood, reduced stress, and cognitive stimulation; and social benefits via facilitating strong social bonds and reducing loneliness. A University College London study found that adults in community choirs reported improved mood and wellbeing, attributed in part to the release of endorphins, dopamine, and serotonin triggered by singing. A Yale and Harvard study in Connecticut found that the average population age in cities that have choirs is considerably higher; a finding that deserves a moment of reflection. The communities where people sing together, live longer. Indianapolismenschorus
Perhaps most striking: a 2016 Oxford Brookes University study asked 375 people who sang alone, sang in choirs, or belonged to sports teams about their psychological wellbeing. All three groups reported high levels of wellbeing — but choristers reported the greatest benefit of any group.
Dr Julene K. Johnson, a cognitive neuroscientist and co-director of the Sound Health Network, noted that group singing led to an overall sense of feeling good. As one participant in her Community of Voices study put it: “The choir — it rejuvenates you. It gives you encouragement, more will to live. Music is medicine for the soul.”
I would not argue with that.
Where to start #
You don’t need to sit through a three-hour opera or develop an opinion on competing interpretations of Beethoven’s late quartets. Classical music exists in entirely digestible formats; Bach’s Air on the G String, Pachelbel’s Canon, the opening of Beethoven’s Fifth, Handel’s Messiah. Most of these are shorter than a podcast episode and considerably more likely to lower your blood pressure.
Start with film scores you already love. Follow the thread from John Williams back to the composers who shaped him. Put on Classic FM on a Sunday morning and let it happen without effort. Find a community choir if that dimension appeals; the research on what it does for mood, cognition, longevity, and social connection is, as we have seen, rather persuasive.
In a world full of noise, classical music offers something increasingly rare: the opportunity to slow down, breathe deeply, and connect with emotions and experiences that transcend cultural boundaries.
Great music is all around us.
Thank you for reading.
Author: Richard Bull-Domican, founder of New Era Financial Introductions, a B2B lead generation consultancy with over twenty years of experience. Usually I write about sales, marketing and lead generation. Occasionally though, I write about personal topics of interest and fascination.
Elsewhere, I create small, digestible guides on Gumroad for business owners who hate aggressive tactics and prefer relationship-led approaches. New resources are added regularly. For longer reads on lead generation and the human side of sales, follow me on Medium and join the daily conversation on LinkedIn.
Gumroad: https://richardbulldomican.gumroad.com/
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LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richardbulldomican/
Sources #
YourClassical.org — “Benefits of listening to classical music” (2024) · PMC — “The transformative power of music: Insights into neuroplasticity, health, and disease” (2024) · Harvard Health — “Music and health” (2021) · PMC — “The Effect of Classical Music on Heart Rate, Blood Pressure, and Mood” (2022) · Musicroom — “Classical Music’s Private Club? How Nigel Kennedy Kicked the Doors Open” (2024) · Classic FM — audience and programming data · IBSA Foundation — “The power of choral singing and its impact on health and the community” (2024) · University College London community choir study · Oxford Brookes University — “It’s better together: the psychological benefits of singing in a choir” (2016) · Yale/Harvard Connecticut choir study · CSO/Music and Mind — Dr Julene K. Johnson, Community of Voices study · Classical Music Magazine — “Study suggests that some emotional responses to music are universal”
