An upcoming concert by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Oct. 23-25:
The Inca Trail
Chicago Symphony Orchestra
Miguel Harth-Bedoya, conductor
Jessica Warren-Acosta, Andean flutes
Kenneth Olsen, cello
Marty Ronish
Diversity Reprised
Earlier this week, our fearless blogmaster, Drew McManus headlined the main blog site Inside the Arts with my comments about Diversity. Maybe the topic doesn’t have legs. Or maybe we all have more important things on our minds right now, but I see classical radio being passed by. I’d like you to add this topic to your mental archive and let it percolate.
I’ve gotten comments back about finding ways to bring diverse audience members into our western tradition, and a comment about education being the key to diversity. Yet I want to know what we could do now — today — to include more people. How can we make our product attractive to more than just 82% white people?
Diversity is Everywhere, Except Classical Radio
What a crazy time we’re in, with global economics on everybody’s mind. Whew. If you need a break from crisis mode, there’s been an interesting conversation going on in the comments of this blog, and I’d like to move some of it up front and possibly get some input. I read an interesting article in the Seattle Times on Sunday on Defining Mixed-Race Identity. The changing face of the American population is a legitimate reason we classical types need to respond to what’s going on around us and not just hang on to our old — very old — traditions. But one of our readers pointed out that to him diversity means attracting new people to classical music, whereas I think it also means classical music reaching out by broadening its playlist to appeal to diverse listeners. Can it be both? What do you think?
PRPD Classical Radio Wrap-up
After four days at the PRPD I’m trying to process the many voices competing in my head. The big, overarching question we radio types ask ourselves every year is How do we increase our audience?