Moneyball meets the Mellonball!

So a hot blow in Miami meets a cold blast in Denver as two completely different orchestras try out two models for attracting audiences.  There are huge differences between the future plans for the New World Symphony and the Colorado Symphony, not the least of which is the fact that in Miami they are using someone else’s money and are not taking any risks, whereas in Colorado they are risking it all!….

New World Symphony, the young blazingly talented students, the cool Music Director, the amazing new venue in a city all about the night life.  They want a piece of the dusk to dawn action.  With the Colorado Symphony,  not that they aren’t young, but it is not a student orchestra and car payments, mortgage payments are naturally a concern for their musicians i.e the survival of the orchestra.  This is how they make their living, and like many orchestras they have been going through some troubled times.  They have made a commitment to fundamentally change, the risk is huge, the reward is survival.  In Miami the risk is maybe the Mellon Foundation thinks twice next time, and the reward….. IT”S PARTY TIME!!!!!

Starting with New World, if any orchestra is going to go for the young audiences it’s this one.  They are young and incredible and they have a venue that can support many different configurations including more glass than a chandelier factory .  In this article: Classical Musicians Test ways to Appeal to Younger Audiences by Jordin Levin he writes:

The acoustically pristine concert hall of the New World Symphony’s New World Center will resound with the vibrant playing of its young classical musicians Friday night — and will also throb with the kind of electronic dance music that fills South Beach nightclubs. Instead of sitting silently, listeners will be able to wander about, chatting and sipping cocktails, getting up close to peer at the DJ or the sawing arms of cellists and violinists.

Not your grandfather’s, your father’s or even your older brother’s classical music concert, the event — called Pulse: Late Night at the New World Symphony — is part of a slate of innovative concert formats at New World aimed at drawing new and younger audiences to classical music. The Pulse events are on the cutting edge of similar efforts by orchestras around the country as the classical music world looks to refresh a shrinking, aging audience and make an art form often perceived as elitist more accessible and inviting to younger listeners.

Similar efforts?  Not really finding any, that are still going anyway.  They received not one but TWO $500K grans from the Mellon Foundation yes (cue Dr Evil) ONE MILLION DOLLARS!!!!! Part of the grant to is to study results and share with other orchestras.  The problem is that there are not many orchestras if any that have a venue with a 7000 square foot glass wall for outdoor viewing, and the facilities to cope with this kind of thing.  In San Angelo TX they play in the city hall auditorium and the only glass is in the front doors!  This is so site specific to their venue  and it might just work because the demographic can support it and the musicians are ALL young themselves.  It is also aimed at driving people away from the traditional form of orchestral music making, not towards it and so it has be composition specific also (i,e Nightlclub = Loud), although this in itself this is a genre for example the music of the brilliant composer Mason Bates who is quoted in the article.  The article to it’s credit does have the opposing view, and I like what New World’s CEO says here:

“It will not harm or diminish our commitment to traditional forms of presentation,” Herring says. “The idea is to invite people to a new way of listening and experiencing the music, and what they do with that experience is up to them. I believe that eventually we will have several audiences, not just one, and that will be for the betterment of the audience, the art form and the musicians.”

All that being said and regardless that this kind of thing does not usually work,  my issue is not with New World for wanting to try something, it is with the Mellon Foundation as they funding this seems to contradict something they say within their mission statement:
Our grantmaking philosophy is to build, strengthen and sustain institutions and their core capacities, rather than be a source for narrowly defined projects.

It seems pretty narrowly defined to me, and makes me hark back to when I wrote about Heinz giving a $50,000 dollar grant to put notes in a cupcake!  With it being so site specific, to pin hopes on this being an answer of how to increase anyone else s audience is a real stretch.

Now to Denver.  I only wish that foundations such as Mellon would take a long hard look at helping an orchestra like the Colorado Symphony and their attempt at remodeling and re-imagining for the purposes of survival and sustainability or as Mellon puts it:  strengthen and sustain institutions and their core capacities .  The CSO are not looking to add on a nightlife feature, they are risking it all.  In the Denver Post article The Colorado Symphony Orchestra Unveils New Business Model , Ray Mark Rinaldi writes:

The plan changes the way the CSO does business, putting more emphasis on earned income rather than donations, working closely with educational groups and corporations to demonstrate its value beyond music-making and using newer technologies, such as video screens during concerts and social networking sites, to help it connect with contemporary audiences.

Artistically, the plan plays down the organization’s middle name by diminishing its emphasis on large symphonic pieces. The CSO will still play Beethoven and Brahms masterworks at Boettcher Concert Hall downtown, but will also perform more intimate programs of chamber music, and pieces for quartets and quintets at smaller venues across the region. Those concerts will require fewer musicians and greatly reduce labor costs per concert.

This is indeed brave, and what is encouraging is that the majority of the 3.0 committee that has put forth the plan is made up of musicians, so they are not simply along for the ride here which is a key factor because with skin in the game they have signaled that they are wanting to make this work, and will work at it.  The union contract has been restructured to allow flexibility which is another sign that they are all in this together, and what is encouraging is that this is something that can be repeated (obviously adjusting for the specific cities, regions and budgets), and is neither an attempt to reinvent the art form and no $100M dollar facility is needed.  It also focuses on engaging the community as a whole.  The best part about it, is that the plan is on their website, so they are engaging everybody which is another good sign and it also suggests they want feedback also.

There is a sense of realism, but also a hope for numbers which are very ambitious (bold my emphasis):

“We don’t know how it will all pan out, but the musicians said, “Hey, we’ll go with the flow,” said cellist Matt Switzer, who helped negotiate the changes.

Overall, the CSO plan calls for modest increases in its budget over the next four years, from $12.7 million currently to $14 million in fiscal year 2014. That number coincides with an expected $2.2 million revenue increase predicted from ticket sales, concert fees and other income opportunities.

The revenue boost will most probably not come only from the mentioned revenue streams, but more with attracting new donors with the personal connections that can be established in the more intimate concert settings.  I hope that will be a focus at the point of contact with their hopefully new audiences.

I wont predict if either orchestra’s plan will prove successful.  It would be great if they both worked, especially the CSO since they are taking the  major risk out of the two.  However, I continue to scratch my head with certain foundations and what they will support.  The very word foundation suggests that it’s the cornerstone building blocks that should be supported, especially if it’s in the mission statement!

 

 

 

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