Iowa Arts News is a monthly publication of the Iowa Arts Council. If you would like to subscribe, please send us a blank e-mail.
Iowa Symphonies Find New “Rules of Engagement”
In
an age where music is on the go and moves just as fast as the people who listen
to it, orchestras and symphonies nationwide are challenged to retain and build
audiences by engaging them in less “listening” and more “experiencing.”
A 2002 study conducted by Audience Insight, LLC for the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation found many concertgoers are buying a social occasion, a chance to strengthen friendships or even spiritual renewal. More than half of all potential classical consumers agree they are “much more likely to attend cultural outings if someone else invites them,” the study reports.
Lance Willet, executive director of the Quad Cities Symphony Orchestra, said his organization is using technology in new and innovative ways to enhance the concert experience to reach new audiences.
“We’re experimenting with adapted concert formats and adding new elements to the concert experience like visual enhancements and more stage/audience dialogue,” he said. “This season, we introduced the use of the ICN (Iowa Communications Network) to deliver a music education outreach performance and we’ve invested heavily in our Web site development.”
According to the American Symphony Orchestra League (ASOL), during the last decade, America’s orchestras performed for more people than ever before and the total number of concerts performed has risen dramatically – by 30 percent in the last decade and generated $1.47 billion in revenue in 2003-04 alone.
For the Cedar Rapids Symphony Orchestra, success has come from hiring talented marketing people.
“We had tremendous opportunities to get in front of the ticket-buying public and get them re-engaged in the organization,” said Jason Wright, CRSO executive director. “The issue had nothing to do with the quality of our orchestra; the CRSO is an exceptional artistic ensemble. The trick was to get people through the doors. Once they experienced the exciting and glorious music from the stage, we knew they would come back time and again.”
As part of its revamped Operational Support Program, the Iowa Arts Council now coordinates site visits to recipient organizations that provide an opportunity for cultural leaders to bounce ideas off each other, learn more about fellow OSP partners and foster relationships. IAC staff members have assembled different teams based on common backgrounds. Recent site visits have included the Quad Cities Symphony Orchestra, the Cedar Rapids Symphony Orchestra and the Des Moines Symphony.
“We’re creating an entirely new relationship with our backbone cultural organizations, one based on honesty and mutual responsibility for the cultural climate in Iowa,” said Anita Walker, director of the Iowa Department of Cultural Affairs. IAC is a division of the Iowa Department of Cultural Affairs.
Kristin Thelander, director of the School of Music, division of Performing Arts at the University of Iowa, attended an OSP site visit to the Cedar Rapids Symphony Orchestra in January.
“I was very interested and gratified in the fact that this brought so many constituents together, and how very interested these constituents were in the symphony and its success,” Thelander said. “There are definite challenges everywhere, including audience development and getting the symphony out to young people. Symphonies must now structure their programming decisions around what will develop audiences, particularly younger audiences.”
According to the ASOL, at traditional classical subscription concerts, half the audience has been 55 or younger for the last several decades. For family concerts, summer concerts and educational concerts, the audience is considerably younger than that. At the CRSO, involving children early is a key component for a lifelong love of classical music. The Cedar Rapids Symphony School recently underwent changes with the opening of the new Cedar Rapids Symphony Center.
“For the school, the question was identity,” Wright said. “The organization created the Symphony Center to bring its 14 different teaching sites under one roof. By focusing on the programs that brought 80 percent of the revenue, we are able to produce good results and a greater awareness of the quality programs at the Cedar Rapids Symphony School.”
The OSP site visits for both the Cedar Rapids Symphony Orchestra and Quad Cities Symphony Orchestra have provided valuable insight to the current challenges of symphonies.
“The Iowa Arts Council’s endorsement of the QCSO, through its grant awards, gives us important leverage in generating funding from other sources,” Willet said. “During our recent site visit, the IAC team provided us the opportunity to ‘convene the community’ and witness firsthand the depth of community support and concern for our success.”
“We are the soundtrack of the region,” Wright adds. “We provide fresh, innovative and entertaining programs that enlighten and elate. This OSP gathering was very valuable in that it brought some new perspective to the organization that it might not have received. It will help set the tone of how the symphony is perceived and how we can better serve this region.”
