“Not one man will the State of Missouri furnish to carry on any unholy crusade”

So said Claiborne Fox Jackson as governor of Missouri in 1861 in response to Abraham Lincoln’s order for Jackson to provide Missouri troops to help fight the Civil War.  As history goes Missouri’s attempt at neutrality did not work out so well!  Especially for Governor Jackson.  Two of Missouri’s orchestras yesterday with the help of the League loaded their muskets to help in the fight for relevance and the battle against apathy, with an audience connection….

The League’s Innovations Forum proclaims in their opening statement:

Everyone wants that next great idea. And that great idea could already be in place at an orchestra near you! From marketing to programming to fundraising to relationship-building, America’s orchestras are testing creative new ideas every day.

Well yesterday the League in the forum featured two of the Springfield Symphony’s ideas which I had posted in my Plugging the Holes series (parts 1 and 3).  After posting the series I sent the link to them.  I was then contacted and interviewed and yesterday… they appeared!  Link to it here and let me know what you think, the two ideas are the way we implement audience requests and our holiday card program.  It’s very exciting to get this kind of recognition, but even more exciting that these successful programs might be picked up elsewhere and help other orchestras.

I also want to give a shout out to our really big sibling up I44, the Saint Louis Symphony.  They were also featured on the forum yesterday with their Encore! program that encourages patrons to use their ticket stubs to see a repeat performance for free!  Great idea!

So yesterday Missouri orchestras were featured as innovators, and in the words of the only Missourian president Harry Truman, The Buck Stops Here! Although if you look at the programs, in actuality there are very few bucks needed and that is one of the keys to them being successful, the other being that they are all about honoring our existing audience.  We must never focus solely on the “new” audiences, we still need to work just as hard to keep those who are with us now.  I believe (check out part 2 of Plugging the Holes)  they will be the ones who will bring to us those new audiences!

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