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You’ve heard it before: The buzz says fans of classical music are snobs, posers or geriatric.

The stereotypes are everywhere – and self-perpetuating. During the station’s pledge drive for donations last week, a DJ for KUSC, local classical station 91.5 FM, made a remark about how the rabble is tense because it listens to high-strung noise across the dial, but that KUSC listeners are characteristically calm during their daily commutes. Spread your secret, she advised: Take home a license plate frame (for a $75 contribution).

Elitist? No kidding.

The intimidation factor is legitimate. At a performance in Royce Hall last month by pianist Murray Perahia, the median age of the audience must have been 68. Geriatric isn’t a joke. And still others, it seemed, just weren’t into it. Did their wives drag them so they could add “Perahia” to their list of conversation topics at their next cocktail party?

Classical music is a difficult world to break into, fan-wise. How does one know when to clap at performances? Or what Op. or K. stand for, anyway? And who knew that pronouncing Richard Wagner’s name phonetically is just, wrong?

So I guess no one should have been surprised that Thursday’s performance recognizing UCLA Philharmonia Conductor Jon Robertson saw only half of Schoenberg Theatre’s seats filled. After all, at 8 p.m., it was competing with the Undergraduate Students Association Council election results at Kerckhoff Hall and a 26-hour marathon reading by Rolfe Hall.

But still.

For just $7 (for students), the nearly two-hour program featured a who’s who of UCLA’s music faculty. Robertson, who stepped down winter quarter as the chair of the department to focus on conducting, played Mozart and Mendelssohn. Antonio Lysy, an internationally known cellist and one of UCLA’s newer professors, played two pieces as well. Lou Anne Neill, professor and long-time harpist for the Los Angeles Philharmonic, chimed in too – so to speak – and there were others.

But at 14 minutes before the performance was set to start, there were exactly 22 people in the audience. Five minutes later, political science Professor Thomas Schwartz showed up, along with another couple dozen attendees. A handful of men are wearing coats and ties; a few of the women, pearls and pantsuits.

Students? A few. The conflict with USAC and “Middlemarch” didn’t likely keep dozens away. And sure, ticket prices were higher than for student performances, but at $7, a collection of musicians like these might have gotten away with playing for more.

Classical music is perceived as inaccessible, or just boring. Sometimes it really is. And a music critic I am not – for all I know, Thursday’s performance might have been sloppy or the interpretation of Mozart might have been all wrong, or whatever else the critics say.

But sometimes, even during those painfully overplayed favorites – like Beethoven’s Ninth – it stirs up this old-fashioned affection for organic music that can only come from wood and strings.

That happened Thursday.

I stepped out during intermission to visit the elections chaos outside Kerckhoff, but returned for the Mendelssohn. At some point during that final piece, between 9:30 and 10 p.m., dozens of undergraduates found out that the student government race for president would be heading for a runoff.

And proving that there really is life beyond USAC, the few dozen people inside Schoenberg were completely oblivious.

There’s another performance Tuesday. The UCLA Philharmonia, conducted by Robertson, is playing three pieces, including the premiere of a composition by Professor Mark Carlson. It’s $3 for students. Forget about the pretension, the fear of not knowing when to clap, and the rest of it – pantsuits not required.

E-mail Jenkins at cjenkins@media.ucla.edu.