Outreach has yielded empty halls. Let’s give orchestra concerts for free
NewsA radical point of view from Chicago Symphony violist, Max Raimi:
On Saturday I took part in a Chicago Symphony concert that struck me as an example of the “outreach” we hear so much about in the classical world done right. The brilliant Black pianist Marcus Roberts performed his “Rhapsody in D” featuring his trio (piano, drums, and bass) with the orchestra, a skillfully written vehicle for his unique talents. Interspersed in the program were spirituals performed gorgeously by the Adrian Dunn Singers, including “Going Home”, which is based on the opening of the slow movement of the work that ended the program, Dvorak’s “New World” Symphony.
The attendance was beyond disappointing; I doubt that the pavilion was 40% full. The next night, as a gesture following the horrific events of July 4 in Highland Park, Ravinia offered free tickets to all Highland Park residents. The tickets were snapped up in a matter of hours and we had a full house for Beethoven and a relative rarity, the Strauss “Alpine” Symphony. A month before, 12,000 people had heard our orchestra in Millennium Park, another free event.
Many years ago, in one of the innumerable emails I wrote to Henry Fogel, who was then the President of the Chicago Symphony (I suspect that at some point he blocked me in self defense), I made a modest proposal. In view of the fact that our outreach initiatives of the past several decades had had no discernible effect on the size and makeup of our audiences, might a very different approach be in order?
Suppose we took all the money we spent on outreach and invested it in lower ticket prices, or simply more free concerts? Or in letting people in certain South and West Side zip codes get significantly discounted tickets? Isn’t it worth a try? What do we have to lose?
Your thoughts, please.
People like free stuff, but once they can take it for granted, they won’t come in significant numbers any more than they do for the ticketed concerts.
It’s also worth considering that plenty of listeners might be willing to come out for Beethoven and Strauss but not for Marcus Roberts and the crossover programs. It might be the most awesome jazz/classical fusion in the world, but a significant chunk of classical music audiences want to hear…classical music, as much as it pains a lot of orchestra administrators to hear it.
WHO decided that Marcus Roberts and gospel would make a good and marketable “outreach” concert for Chicago?
I can guarantee that no local black community was actually “outreached” on that decision process.
I see a bunch of white corporate types sitting around a conference table at the CSO trying to imagine what black people must enjoy (“Eureka, black people gotta love jazz and gospel, let’s program a concert around it, let’s see, who’s black, jazzy and classical-music-friendly, oooh, Marcus Roberts…”).
CSO, don’t dismiss “outreach” until actual “outreach” has been made., i.e., real consultation with local communities.
I have enjoyed Marcus Roberts in concert and admire his artistry greatly. But his is a rather particular form of jazz, or jazz/classical fusion in some pieces (think Jazz at Lincoln Center), and to my way of thinking a strange choice for an outreach concert if the point is to meet a new audience half way or more than half way and make people enjoy what is to them a new experience and willing to try it again. I am not sure any form of contemporary jazz now qualifies, since most of what is now called jazz is of the smooth Boney James variety. Marcus Roberts would sound like late Stravinsky to a Boney James fan.
Maybe I’m all wet but I think the old fashioned Arthur Fiedler programming would be a better bet.
In London Sir Simon Ratlle gives an annual outreaach concert which is free in Trafalgar Square. I was volunteering at the event and we couldn’t let any more people into the square.
Two to three weeks later, I volunteered at their Triomphale concert at St. Paul’s cathedral which featured Messiaen and Berlioz. That was virtually full as well as was Sir John Elliott Gardiner conducting the LSO in a Beethoven programme at the Barbican with Maria João Pires as the soloist.
I notice many of the concert goers were of oriental origins.
Currently in Sydney, the Sydney Symphony Orchestra have solt out Mahler 2 five nights running and their concert with Hilary Hahn is virtually sold out three nights running.
It indicates that there is a solid market for good quality classical music. Playing music that is neither one thing or the other will not draw audiences.
However once the legacy of dead white males is trashed, classical music has sailed up a dead end.
Over time the music of contemporary female and racially diverse mix of composers will get an increased airing and composers like Florence Price will have her music played.
She may not have had the opportunities to develop her composing skills, but in order to promote equality, trying to pretend Clara Schumann’s piano concerto is as good as Robert’s does not really work.
More free concerts are great. Will the players perform for free? Because that’s what it will take. “Outreach” money won’t cover it.
How strange that he found it necessary to describe the pianist as black.
Everyone now in the US must be identified by race by most news organizations. It helps to divide.
Exactly whom do you think outreach programs are trying to reach?
the very people who will never ever come. ever.
It was clearly relevant to the outreach initiative. Not sure why it struck you as strange.
Instead of south and west side audiences, can I apply for outreach? I am white.
I’m not living in the Chicago area, but it would be a great idea. The Jacksonville Symphony gave a free concert featuring a giant screen with artworks by local artists accompanying original compositions being performed, and the place was standing room only. This was way back at least 3-4 decades ago. Audiences subsequently were larger, suggesting that people who were new to the experience enjoyed what they heard.
Arnold Schoenberg once suggested that orchestras simply take up a collection at concerts where people could pay what they could pay.
When the Jax Symphony introduced reduced ticket prices for students, young people showed up with their dates. The paradigm for running music organizations needs to change.
Had Schoenberg applied his idea to his own music, he would have been starved to death quite quickly.
Interesting idea. Here in NY the Philharmonic gives free outdoor concerts in various parks around the city. Also a free concert every Memorial Day at the Cathedral of St John the Divine. These are invariably very well attended and the audiences very appreciative. However, there’s a big difference in attending an outdoor concert and an in-hall event (not just cost). I would venture to suggest that people who attend the free concerts rarely if ever buy a ticket for the CSO or NYPO, I believe them to be mostly entirely separate audiences. If this is true then your idea of discounted tickets would likely not materially affect attendance at Symphony Center and would deprive the free concert crowd of concerts. The free concerts I believe constitute “giving back/civic responsibility” mostly. If they attract a few people to sample a CSO or NYPO concert during the regular season of course that’s great. Many years ago I had a friend from Sweden who described what he believed was “ticket-buying phobia” – this afflicts people who do love music, they listen to Classical Radio, can whistle or sing along to the Barber of Seville Overture or whatever and even watch concerts on TV, but somehow for who knows what reason just can’t get it together to buy a ticket and go to a concert. It’s not a matter of affordability for them. They have the “phobia.” My friend indicated this to be true in the USA, England (where we were at the time) and Germany where he had also lived. The phobia doesn’t apply when you offer them a ticket to an event you have bought the tickets for and will gladly pay for their ticket. They just can’t manage it on their own. So in sum (and I know this is tediously long) I don’t think it’s an issue of ticket prices and subsidies, it’s more complex than that and I don’t think it’s well understood. In the meantime I will of course be at the CSO concerts whenever the orchestra tours to NYC!!!
It should never be free, Max. But it should be affordable for anybody — provided they subscribe.
A $1,200 bill in March is no hurdle for some couples. $400 is easy for thousands more though. And the difference soon evaporates in single-event marketing costs (with those icky slugs: “Yuja plays the Schumann”) without any real relationship being established. This is a lesson that needs to be speedily relearned by boards, along with the countless benefits of a jam-packed house.
Because the medicine didn‘t work, let‘s use much more of it!!!
Like Pfizer
All in favor of offering reduced price and/or free tickets. However, there is no data which confirms that those people will then buy a full price ticket to come to your main concert hall. If you’re doing it for purely altruistic purposes, that’s great. But, if you’re doing it because you think it will build audiences for your main concert series, it won’t.
Orchestras, especially those with significant endowment funds should do more free concerts; not lowering standards is important; don’t play “easy” classics. The real trick is how to convince those who come to keep coming back and eventually be a financial supporter and buy tickets. Most people who don’t think they like classical music find out that they do if they have a chance to hear it played well.
Completely agree, but I would add that the process getting those people to buy tickets starts earlier in their lives so that the desire to seek out classical music is cultivated. Just going to a parks concert with a pop program without an earlier upbringing in music may not be enough to encourage a significant number of them to buy a ticket to a regular subscription program.
I grew up in the Chicago area and was introduced to classical music during the 5th grade by an orchestra that visited from the Music Center of the North Shore conducted by Dr. Herbert Zipper. It was the beginning of a 50+ year (and going strong) attraction. Before leaving the area in 2000, I attended 18 seasons at the CSO and Lyric. I miss the Solti, Abbado and Barenboim days. The majority of public schools have long since given up any aspect of arts education, which has resulted in this acceleration in disappointing attendance across the US orchestral scene.
The two are not mutually exclusive: how about diversity concerts that are free for (all) people (in diversity communities)?
Otherwise, you are comparing apples and oranges: of course white people will snap up free tix for a free Beethoven concert, and brown people won’t snap up expensive tix for an expensive gospel concert.
But would brown people have snapped up free tix for free Beethoven if free Beethoven had been offered in the South Side rather than in Highland Park?
Why Highland Park? The Chicago Tribune reported (and it was in the forefront in reporting it, which was picked up by the NYT), that on the same weekend as the Highland Park shooting, Chicago, particularly the South Side, suffered 3 times as much gun violence as Highland Park.
Highland Park was more dramatic, but it was not more fatal. White people getting shot up is always more newsworthy than Black people getting shot up.
This is most puzzling. After Muti’s grand slam where he turned the black singers he hired into staunch supporters of Verdi’s unapologetic racial lines such as “dirth n**** blood”, I would have expected masses of black concert goers to assault the box office, with twice as many dissappointed black Muti’s admirers, left regrettably without a ticket, waiting outside and watching the event on a big screen.
I can’t figure out what happened, can you?
I would not give up just yet. Try to persuade the Maestro to do another Aida with Netrebko in blackface and parade it on the South Side, assuming that Muti supporte blackface, and I don’t see why he wouldn’t. Or perhaps ask Muti to do an interview in Latin with Ms. Weiss, that will go viral on Twitter and Instagram.
Please try these out – good luck and update us on your progress.
One day you’ll have to tell us what Muti did to you.
Yes, Lothario, you nailed it! It’s all Muti’s fault. Everything is. Before he came, the CSO had a richly diverse audience, and he ruined it. Is there any topic that you do not respond to with an attack on Muti?
Right on, Max Raimi. I’ve enjoyed your comments here and in other venues. I would think Henry Fogel would agree with you on this one.
The Chicago Symphony makes 10s of millions of dollars a year in ticket sales, a significant percentage of its revenues and annual fund. The system as it is built favors the elite who can afford it. While I applaud the socialist initiative and see it working well already in other cultures, I sadly doubt the freebies or significantly discounted tickets would work within the funding structure and money culture of the US unless the lost revenue can be supplemented somehow.
“Socialist?” Sounds like a civic organization doing something nice for its community to me. If that’s “socialist” I wouldn’t want to live in whatever political paradise you may have lurking in the back of your mind……………..
Dear Mr. Raini, being a professional orchestra musician in Germany I completely get your point. As you know classical music concerts are very highly subsidized by the States of Germany -who are in charge of education and culture- and average ticket prices are much lower for operas and concerts than in the US. People under 30 can usually join a performance paying not much more than for a cinema. But even here we struggle with decreasing numbers in the audience after Covid and 40% audience especially in opera performances -which makes the huge majority of performances including classical music here in Germany- is not rare. In my point of view, it‘s a big risk to offer subscription programs just for free as people get used to it. Will you play for free? I don‘t. It‘s a matter of balance. In the US you still have more than enough people who can afford tickets for a high price but the generation who is willing to spend the time there fades out. You have more and more people being hungry to listen to music but can‘t afford a ticket even for the lowest price. It needs a balance in ticket prices according to the percentage of people in each range of budget. Unfortunately especially your job in the US relies on the 10% who have 80% of the private money. Your States don‘t invest in this and this will not be become better during the next years. This situation is a trap.
I hope the CSO management listens to you, Max. I understand completely where you are coming from for all the reasons you stated. Years ago we looked on in envy at the subscription sales for both the CSO and Lyric Opera. Times change; tastes change. Nonetheless, artistic excellence serves as its own superb ambassador if those unfamiliar with classical music experience a packed house with an attentive audience.
I’ve seen this in Canada, too. Orchestras that struggled to fill houses — though they were better than post-Covid figures or the least successful orchestras around — could count on filling them at their rare free concerts, whether it be Youth Orchestras, opera or orchestras doing a full and balanced programme. There were always staff there trying to sign people up as subscribers, and rarely any takers, though some would take away literature and agree to consider it.
The fact is that in economically stretched households, whether they be of one or of families, classical music is low on the list of their priorities. They might love it, and it may not be nearly as expensive as pop concerts, but they have to put other things ahead of it in their budgets. There is no doubt at all that the demographic of orchestras I have worked for is much better off than the average working stiffs.
And the pop concert thing is not entirely relevant: people might spring a great deal for Elton John, or Adele, or whoever tops the pops or has built a long and successful career, but the Elton fans don’t buy death metal or rap concert tickets and vice versa. They might splurge on one concert a year, or two. Favourites don’t tend to tour often in the same arenas. But orchestras are trying to commit patrons to series of concerts, with dates far in advance, and with exchanges often limited to just that, not refunds in the case of emergencies, or even to just credits. One orchestra I know only allowed credits, and they had to be used the same season, which made it tough if you had to cancel a very late season concert. You do not endear yourself to a patron who has to cancel a concert because his child has been rushed to hospital. Or whose work demands overtime because of a crisis.
Subscribing worked for me and my co-subscribers because we liked to have a few dates a year carved out where we could tell overly-demanding employers — well in advance — that we were committed that night, and we could plan to try to clear our decks so as to enjoy a few nights out.
But that does not work for everyone. Orchestras need more innovative ways of selling tickets, and reducing or eliminating prices is one way to fill halls. Alas, it does not fill coffers, and in this economy donors cannot carry the load.
I have various logoe’d items from orchestras I have worked for. I have never seen any of them for sale in the lobby. Maybe a bigger thrust on merchandising could help reduce ticket prices.
I don’t know the answer, but I do know from inside two Canadian and two US orchestras that the old and hidebound ways are not working.
I am extremely confused, and my confusion is twofold.
One: why is MR all worked up by the 40% attendance for the outreach concert? Subscription concerts barely fill half SC as a matter of course.
Two: we obviously knew the CSO was desperate. But … so desperate to literally not even try to sell tickets anymore?
Dear God.
Max please get your act together. Muti is almost gone, if he does not disintegrate you in the last season, who knows maybe you may even come back on the radar in two, three years. C’mon man, have some dignity.
Riccardo Muti has never conducted at Ravinia, as far as I know, and Henry Fogel was long gone by the time Muti came on board. He is not germane to this discussion, and it is quite sad that you are utterly incapable of talking about anything else.
On a recent thread, I noted that your assertion that CSO subscription attendance was at 40% this season did not remotely comport with what I have been seeing from the stage. I challenged you to back up your claim with some data. I cannot say that it came as any surprise that you could not do so, and blithely repeated your unsubstantiated claim. Put up or shut up, little rat.
I did not propose that we “not even try to sell tickets anymore”. You might look up “straw man argument” in what is clearly your ample free time.
Re “C’mon man, have some dignity.” I will certainly defer to you as an authority on lack of dignity.
If there’s any place worth experimenting with this, it’s Chicago.
With an already long established (Grant Park) orchestra that offers free concerts at Millennium Park, which offers donors preferred seating, but also pitches donation making at each concert, I’d be interested in statistics concerning donations. Does volume of accessibility create productive results, or at least promote interest in ticket buying? A criticism which has existed around Chicago’s other major free festivals is the concern that audiences flock to the major events, but may not actually get out to a jazz or blues club, for instance. As an audience member for free events as well as concert halls and clubs, however, it is uncomfortable to get lectured by the mayor’s legate for these events or Muti, for that matter.
But CSO has a unique in house opportunity to experiment with this, already. They also sponsor the Civic Orchestra. Its concerts, with young musicians, are, purportedly, “free.” But, there has long been a small ticketing cost: currently five bucks. Drop the cost. Solicit donations, instead. Some will, simply avail themselves of a complimentary concert. Others might give more than a fin. The Civic and Symphony Center could make out better than they do with their weird math of what’s cost free currently.
Free Concerts are a start, but you have to indoctrinate audiences from a young age. That responsibility is with parents and schools. School bands and orchestras are key to building future concert goers.
A proposal for common sense as opposed to virtue signaling. Thus doomed to failure in today’s art community.
Thanks Max, for this observation and suggestion. Growing up in Detroit, my parents took me to the free summer concerts given by the Detroit Symphony at Belle Isle and also at the State Fairgrounds. It was thrilling to me, as a young violinist, to hear the masterworks performed live, but the free aspect of it was equally important for us. I hope your ideas can be taken seriously and acted on.
I’m a fellow Detroiter, and my first classical concerts were on the lawn at Meadowbrook.
Since you asked, I would think it would make more sense to provide the outreach programs at greatly reduced prices or for free, if the Symphony is really trying to reach out with that concert. Or alternatively, provide free tickets to people who want to attend but can’t afford out of tickets not sold.
On another note glad to see Marcus Robert’s still doing his thing, haven’t heard from him in a long time, it sounded like a very good program.
My concert series that I get to participate in is struggling. Many who have held it up over the years have since passed away. I don’t know what the answers are.
Worth a try. I went to many concerts in Grant Park when living in Chicago, they were always well-attended. ‘Outreach’ smacks of patronisation to me, however well-intended its origins. Market classical music as something worth listening to as opposed to something to apologise for and you might be on to something. After all, when did those immensely talented rap ‘artists’ ‘reach out’ to other audiences? In the end, to each his own. Classical music is something which grows on you the more intelligent you become.
When I was a teenager in the 70s, I was able to afford to take myself to CBSO concerts with my pocket money, and consequently got hooked on classical music. I know the orchestra has initiatives to encourage youngsters, but otherwise, next season’s ticket prices begin at £26. It’s hard to encourage the audience of tomorrow when the hurdle is so high.
The reality is that classical music / opera are minority interests (me being one of them) and that your argument about ticket prices does not hold water. Most of the people you are talking about will do doubt have an expensive mobile phone often with an even more expensive monthly contract so if they really wanted to go classical concerts they can afford to do so. I too got hooked on classical music but in the late 60s, but I was also hooked on Jazz, Psychadelic Rock, Folk Music, Blues and particularly Northern Soul. It is time to abandon all the useless “outreach projects”, they don’t work and never will. Yes, you may attract the extra odd few to concerts but nothing like the numbers that will make a significant difference.
People have expensive phones and contracts because they feel they need them. Vanishingly few will “trade down” so that they can buy a ticket to a concert, any concert, classical or otherwise. If they had the financial acumen to realize just how expensive the phone is over time, and how getting anything but the most parsimonious option offers poor value, they would not have opted for the expensive phone and plan. Similarly, no one decides to cancel their streaming subscriptions in order to buy a ticket.
Do more free concerts.
We at the Miami Symphony in Miami, FL do quite a few free outdoor concerts and it has a very positive impact on the community.
Tickets need to get cheaper, certainly in the US. Dump “the stars” with their high fees and 200+ concerts per year, there is little value in listening to concert number 164 of bored someone of that kind. Quality artistry and individuality at a fair price go a long way as opposed to over-promoted stars and laureates of rigged competitions.
Who are the laureates of rigged competitions?
Excellent idea. May it catch on.
It would be interesting to survey how outreach efforts by major orchestras have performed post-Summer of Floyd. Has programming more Black composers and artists, along with statements admitting racism and committing to anti-racism training made a difference in attendance by Black members of the community? Have land acknowledgment statements increased attendance by Native Americans?
Max Raimi, in my mind, has a super valid point. More orchestras should be testing this.
I assume many outreach programs and staffing are very costly.
I did notice one “top tier” has begun charging for park based concerts which have been free to the public for 50+ years.
It’s interesting to compare this with Janet Malcolm’s drivel recently shared on this site regarding ‘inequities intrinsic’ to performing/classical music arts. Snooze.
Outreach concerts are already not programmed to the same level as subscription concerts. There might be a few ‘sold’ out free outreach concerts but an institution would be setting up an interesting arrangement that would yield more controversy over time:
On one hand the institution would be saying that its value is priced for some but free for all. However, certain standards change: the venues, the soloists, the repertoire. Gosh, this day in age it would be like saying, “We will pay the audience to hear this music…but that other music, no, we need to be paid for that.”
Long term, it sets a risky precedent.
Throughout history, the audience of so-called classical music has only widened and expanded with each generation. The CSO might be wiser to set up education programmes sponsoring teaching than ‘outreach’ programs, if you’re looking for a better way to spend money. Maybe performing in halls doesn’t need to be the only role of an orchestra. Orchestral players also teach, maybe it is time that arrangement take a more organized approach with the backing of the institution. Nothing will fill the seats in the future like educating young students now because they will be able to relate to the music.
Do you wanna set up a research department to figure out why teens from the South side of Chicago or Gary, Indiana, aren’t hanging out inside the hall on Saturday nights, turning off their phones to listen to some Beethoven (or, [living composer)? It’s fairly obvious, and it’s no different than in Haydn’s time (or place), Beethoven’s, Sarasate’s, or Rachmaninoff’s…it just doesn’t appeal to everyone.
Consider the number of string players who buy tickets to see an Emmanuel Pahud recital, Or the pianists tearing down the wall to get tickets to hear a famous trombonist recital. Even within classical music, there’s not all that much carry-over between instrument groups.
Look at the programming for the outreach concert you mention. It’s borderline cross-over. That’s fine, but to give that away for free or discount it is to also to say that core programming presents a better product, has a higher demand, and deserves a ticket price. With the way woke-world is shaking things up, programming might need to be a little more cautious than it is already without setting up a “pay for this, not for that” arrangement.
The concerts that will bring almost anyone in: soundtrack music. Wanna go broke? Follow Marin Alsop and the Beethoven 9/Schiller appropriation. Wanna fill the halls programming new music only? You’ll need a hall with fewer seats.
Offering discounts sounds viable. In my country, Argentina, some concerts are state sponsored and therefore charge free for the audience but the musicians and/or singers get paid.
The world is changing and you need to go along with the change if you are to survive. The everything must be free mentality has also reached the classical music world. You have to find a way to get the next generations interested in LIVE music – any genre will do?! – and understand the difference between a cool looking earphone streaming into their ears and a concert hall with a full orchestra playing right in front of you and caressing every cell of your body. We are also in the middle of a pseudo cultural war and people are forgetting the importance of higher education altogether. The word “respect” has become a sharp weapon which they misuse in every possible scenario, but ironically forget as soon as it involves themselves. To illustrate my point here, last May i attended a concert in Vienna with the wonderful Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Maestro Muti (Debussy Trois Nocturnes and Berlioz Symphonie fantastique) and i read he has conducted that orchestra 470 times over the past 50+ years (!) The Musikverein golden Hall was packed wall-to-wall and I couldn’t help noticing young people wearing their white EarPods (at least one piece just for the cool looks?) DURING THE CONCERT and playing around with their cellphones every other minute (as if they were afraid to miss out on something?) instead of simply enjoying the concert, and one of them sat right in front of me, so in the first break between movements I couldn’t help but tapping on his shoulder and asking him to leave the hall if the pope calls him while the maestros are playing. Respect is earned.
Uh … sorry for being brutally honest, but it was a Muti’s concert. With that cranky dinosaur, a young person takes a nap, or finds an evasion. Let’s tell it how it is …
Not a bad idea!
I would be remiss if I did not add one more post on this important thread. As I sip this outstanding mojito at my favorite neighborhood restaurant, I see a bright light.
When Maestro is back, how about a Caribbean-themed outreach concert? What could be more congenial to him? Perhaps titled “Caribbean Paradise” or something like that.
Talk to Alexander about it, he will have to agree that Muti would be naturally attuned and that such an event would be a smashing hit :-DD
Just a thought – good luck again!
Yeah, good idea. Free tickets especially for younger people!
Audiencenses world-wide need to get younger if we want cultural evolution to continue.
And COVID wasn’t powerful enough to alter the demographics of the concert hall.
In order to fill the concert halls for good a public with understanding should be raised. This is an enormous task which can only be achieved when everyone in the child’s surroundings is involved: the parents, the school, the friends etc.
Knowing the priorities of the school music falls back to an inferior place. Therefore if the orchestra could afford and manage some members of the orchestra to take over the task of going to a school on regular basis and to improvise with the children that would be a great help in the long run. It is not an easy job and it should be paid like the playing in Chicago Symphony! Good luck!
In the mind of the man in the street what you get for free has no value.
I sympathize with the idea, but giving away free concerts is a very bad idea for a number of reasons:
1) It devalues the concert and the performing musicians.
2) It will have a ripple-on effect on regular ticket buyers: why pay for a performance if there are free ones available on a regular basis? This will lead to reduced ticket sales elsewhere and the need to subsidize – a rather vicious cycle… (think of a movie theater, where blockbusters will be free to see on a regular basis – who will buy tickets for the regular screenings?)
3) The political message is devastating: why spend money on free concerts? It’s difficult enough to get funding for the arts; spending it on free concerts will only give ammunition to those who are critical of the arts anyway plus people will start to expect being given free concerts.
The whole issue of free tickets – from a promoter’s point of view – is incredibly delicate: you need them to attract audiences and keep donors happy; but cross an invisible threshold and it will start effecting your general ticket sales.
I couldn’t agree more. I find outreach to be a dated, apologist, PC response to claims of classical music being “elite” or “non-inclusive.” Necessary activity to show rich donors (individuals or corporations or foundations) “we’re striving to engage with the community.” A bit like corporations engage in “corporate responsibility “ activities. Some of these are excellent, some ludicrous.
That said, identifying a need for more music education in schools and doing something about that is absolutely excellent. For it is here that acquaintance is made with music per se and some us get the bug for life, becoming audience members and purchasers of recordings.
However: If classical music is elitist, so be it. If kids are smarter than others, foster that with advanced courses without representation of kids who are NOT that bright. Let’s stop making apologies for classical music.
When was the last time we saw football clubs and teams engage in outreach to the “elites,” to the high-income suburban zip codes, so as to up the number of atypical attendees?
Many if not all of the questions raised by today’s half-empty halls are a different conversation, I believe.
Perhaps a moderated zoom conference for subscribers on this topic would be an interesting outreach?
I love the idea that only smart kids like classical music, with its converse that only dumb kids like all other types. Of course we all knew already that a love of classical music puts us into the top 2% in terms of intelligence, and the 98% who don’t get it are just thick, but it is nice to have authoritative confirmation.
The problem as I see it, is that the AUDIENCE decides what a concert is worth, but the management decides what to charge for it. The possible solution is to have the ticket sales as an online auction — you, the audience member, gets to decide how much to pay for your ticket, and which location. If you want to outbid somebody who paid 5 bucks for the mezzanine, you raise the bid, and kick the previous bidder out of their seat.
The result? Management maximizes the audience size AND the income derived from the concert. With a bit of savvy marketing, one might have a bit of fun here. With a smaller market ensemble courting Yo-Yo Ma in a single performance, it would be the way to fly.
I have never seen nor heard of any research that supported “outreach” efforts in terms of audience conversion (to subscribers or regular season attendance). The outreach may have other benefits with donors and in proving to government funders that the orchestra provides some broadly accessible programing. I do find it a bit laughable that Marcus Roberts would be seen as someone appealing to potential crossover audiences. Who Marcus Roberts is and what he does, isn’t any better known in the average community than that of the orchestra itself. Want to build real crossover, consider some rap, hip-hop, electronic, or indie-pop artists that the community might actually know. That’s the world we live in, if you want to attract people who aren’t ordinarily engaged in classical music or jazz.
I live just far enough from Chicago to make concerts difficult. And as I age I am less comfortable going to Orchestra Hall, especially with crime increasing in the area.
I’d like to see someone set up a better multimedia experience. The CSO’s is OK but pales to the BPO and others. Install dozens of small cameras in the hall. Allow audiences to choose what they want to see. Maybe I want to zoom in on the basses, the clarinets, the timpani, or even Max! I’d gladly pay a full subscription price to have access to all concerts in this manner and watch them in the comfort of my media room. Is it as good as live? No. But it’s a start and helps create the worldwide audience the CSO had in the halcyon days of recording.
The cost of tickets probably isn’t the barrier to entry, but the lack of interest and appreciation for classical music. Lower-priced classical concert tickets range between $35-$75, which is less than what most people spend on Starbucks per month, or what most spend on movie concessions per month (just the snacks, not even counting the movie tickets), and certainly a fraction of what most pay for Bears/Cubs/Bulls tickets.
Maybe instead of cheaper or free tickets, give free lessons to kids, play at their schools more, host ensemble activities around town, and do all of this more frequently, not just occasionally. Make it a part of their lives, and something they’ll remember forever. Doing so could help cultivate the desire for adults later in life to actually want to go to a CSO concert, and even prioritize paying for a concert. If not, it’s too late when they’re adults to try to convince them to pay and sit through a typical subscription concert and expect them to keep coming back.
The cost is a barrier. Good enough seats for a family of three, will cost around $200 (in a major US city). Add the cost of parking or taking an Uber. And, of course, our concert halls nickel-and-dime us by also slapping on ticket processing fees (currently $18 for 3 people). There are discounts for students and young people, but not for all concerts. For certain series there are no discounts at all. In the post-covid season there was one concert I felt was worth going to in my city, the cheapest seats were $55 plus the obligatory nickel-and diming mark-up. It would be $110 plus $12 in processing fees for me and my kid to attend. No discounts.
To my broader point: For what other entertainment/discretionary purpose have you spent $122 on this year? For every one of those things, you are prioritizing those things above that concert. To be clear, there’s nothing wrong with that, and I’m not criticizing. I’m only suggesting that maybe one may have different priorities if classical music appreciation were more ingrained in their earlier lives.
It is ingrained in my life more than anything else. Btw, we prioritize our health over most of everything else, and still we are unhappy about high drug prices. We prioritize heating and cooling our houses in cold nights and in scorching heat, but we balk at high energy prices. Sometimes expensive is just expensive regardless of the ranking of on our priorities list.
That’s not my question. My question was what entertainment/discretionary things have you spent $122 on this year? Conflating essentials like drug prices and heating/cooling costs is misleading to my point that prices of classical concert tickets, while high, isn’t the only barrier. Many spend that much or more on other discretionary activities.
Marcus Roberts is an extraordinary performer, and great he appeared with the CSO. Whether or not it’s “outreach,” you’d hope he would sell (BTW, his early 2000s performance of Rhapsody in Blue with the Berlin Phil at Waldbuhne is wonderful).
I am glad to see that a free concert that included the Alpine Symphony would get a good crowd. BTW I’m not sure how much of a “rarity” it is anymore. When my youth orchestra played it in 1980 it certainly seemed to be; when I did a little study of U.S. orchestral subscription programs in the early 2000s, it was getting played as much as Heldenleben. I see it on programs all the time these days.
That’s a really great idea, but don’t make the big names free…
Don’t “reach out”, just play normal music and the people will come and appreciate it. For idiotically political programming no organization will find an audience. Classical music is elite, there are not too many consumers of it anyway, and politically charged classical music is of NO INTEREST to anybody. So, be prepared for financial catastrophies.
Concerts are too expensive in the USA. No the same situation in Europe. Sorry.
The CSO’s successful and cheap ticket price outreach and performances in the Wheaton area have been very successful for several years, and their earlier Chicago start time (and finish time) have enabled patrons to catch their trains without running down the aisles before performances were even finished. It’s a big ship to turn.
I reject the idea of free. It should not be free and it should not be “marketed” to the south side and the west side. Those communities have no interest in classical music not matter how many free concerts are offered to them. Free devalues the CSO and free is a really bad idea. No one has figured out how to pay for free.