Could this be the year with seemingly inevitable economic woes painting a bleak picture for individual, corporate and foundation support and most importantly ticket sales, that while strategizing we collectively all ask the question……well what does the audience want? It’s not so much that we need to hit the reset button, but we do need to realize that it’s the audience that has the power to unlock our growth in these times…..
audience connection
Audience Connection Final – part 2
The final two dream big Arts organizations from the Audience Connection final (here is part 1). Also, as part of their final I wanted them to take a genre of music and redefine it into more clearly understood sub-genres i.e funk, techno funk. I have included clips from two that were very well thought out and presented. For the Holidays, at the end of the post I have included audio from a rehearsal of Franz Biebl’s extraordinary Ave Maria with yours truly conducting Choirs from Evangel University and the College of the Ozarks….
The Audience Connection Final – Part 1
The Audience Connections Class you have been hearing clips from since August had their final on December 10, so here they are this week for the last time. Below is the main part of their final, which was a challenge…….
Not that there’s anything wrong with that!
What is it all coming to? The recession is forcing even major arts organizations to …..gulp……actually program what the audiences want to hear and see! Now what’s that I hear, the big 3 automakers need to build cars that people want to drive! I guess newspapers need to start writing what people want to read! In the immortal words of R.E.M:
It’s the end of the world as we know it…..
Let’s hope so, at least for the arts world!….
A Flat Brew…..
My class is winding up soon, I will miss this group. The students bring articles and blog posts to discuss each class and Amanda brought one about the Night Shift Series put on by the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment which takes place late at night, where drinking beer is allowed and encouraged (musicians don’t get too excited)….if you’re in the audience……
The People Business….
I am embroiled in rehearsals for Mahler 5 and was not going to write till later in the week, but something jumped out at me over on Greg Sandow’s blog that I could not let pass by. The talk of free concerts for the community have been the subject of his last two post,s and most of the comments coming back to him make me think that people still believe we are in the music business. We are not, we are in the people business!….
Belated thanks…and a suggestion!
It occurred to me today that I didn’t realize when writing my post on Nov 5 commenting on the election, that it was Stick and Drones one year anniversary! I looked back these past few days browsing through some different posts and especially the comments. I can’t tell you how exhilarating the journey has been so far….
Audience Poll – Gorilla Style!
My Audience Connection class attended the Springfield Symphony concert on Oct 18, a Big Band themed Pops concert. They were not there to review the concert, but to review the audience! The audience response was tremendous, as was the review in the paper. The students however did an internal eavesdrop poll with interesting results. Our discussion is in three parts below as well as some audio from the concert. I highly recommend every performing arts group do this kind of review!: (podcast 15 and 16 will be up Monday)