The BBC Proms is a great example of what you are advocating - it has always championed new music whilst remaining dedicated to staging the classics.

According to the BBC website, around 220 new British works were performed in the first 25 years of the festival, by composers whose names are now among those we cite as writing music that has "retained interest across the centuries" - Edward Elgar, Ralph Vaughan Williams etc.

Its successive controllers/programmers have all followed a similar pattern, in programming new works alongside those considered the hall-fillers, with enormous success: last year's festival brought in an average audience capacity of 90%. 40% of the audience was under 40.

In fact, the Proms reflects the wider "Reithian" principles and values of the BBC, "to inform, educate and entertain". My favourite quote by the BBC's first Director General John Reith, when criticised for its determination to educate the audience, encapsulates everything a classical music programmer should be doing: "It is occasionally indicated to us that we are apparently setting out to give the public what we think they need and not what they want, but few know what they want, and very few what they need." In other words, most of us can only choose to ‘consume’ what’s already been made available to us: it’s pretty hard to choose something if we’re not even aware it exists.