I love many classical music pieces, the greatest music of the last 400 years. I am particularly fond of German speaking composers JS Bach, Beethoven, and Brahms. I detest the dress standard set for men by Otto von Bismark, the dark non-functional jacket, the white shirt, the artificial appendage around the neck. A morning coat (tails) is a late nineteenth century variation but the style of suits for men started with an infamous tyrant, IMHO.
Many stuffy people, perhaps contest judges, and newspaper critics, assume if you don't dress like 1850, you are not serious. I can do without those opinions, but perhaps young performers cannot. I, like everybody else, check the media for what is happening that is interesting. U-tube and new media break down the newspaper monopoly, but getting famous on the internet is not always a recipe for financial success. I don't know why the local symphony society decides to pay the soloists from the big city that they select, but when they emergency substituted a local college teacher for the rising young contest winner that was their first choice for a piano concerto, I was extremely pleased at his concerto performance. Maybe he is not famous, but great music ensued. He wore the Bismark decreed suit, unfortunately.
I'm beginning to see some conductors drop the tie, on PBS-TV, as Michael Tilson Thomas. I'm pleased, maybe others are not. As far as women performers, I can't think of anything more silly than high heels, but breaking stereotypes is particularly difficult for talented women. I am pleased when a woman performer wears something that is pleasant looking, but not particularly distracting. If the music is that great I'm not really looking at anything during the best parts, except perhaps their hands to see how that passage was done.
Topic: Concert attire