[Dixielandjazz] Decline in Listeneres Worries Orchestras - Marketing 202.

[Steve barbone]

We OKOMers are an inbred lot. Sometimes so inner focused that we fail to see
that the same problems we face, exist in other forms of musical
entertainment. Note the below problem with "Classical" Orchestras. (Or use
your delete key if you are not interested.)

For those who read on, just substitute OKOM for "Classical" references in
the article and realize that it is the marketing of the music that sucks,
not the music itself. Time to quit blaming the audience, or lack thereof,
and get off our asses and market the music properly.

Cheers,
Steve Barbone

Decline in Listeners Worries Orchestras

By ANNE MIDGETTE June 25, 2005 - NY TIMES

It was a typical July night at the Ravinia Festival last year. Deborah Voigt
was singing in Act I of Wagner's "Walküre," with James Conlon leading the
Chicago Symphony Orchestra: a magnificent night of music. And the pavilion
in which the orchestra performs was half full.
 
"There was an epiphany for me," said Welz Kauffman, the president of
Ravinia. "It's a moral issue. There should not be anyone missing this." It
is less about revenue and filling seats, he continued, adding that what
mattered was: "There are people who would really love this. How do we get to
them?"

How indeed? Ravinia, in Highland Park, Ill., was originally built as an
amusement park, but since 1936 it has been the summer home of the Chicago
Symphony. Today it presents everything from the Doobie Brothers to Stephen
Sondheim, from cabaret to chamber music, but the symphony - which began its
2005 season there last night - remains the festival's centerpiece.

Yet while Ravinia is selling more tickets every summer, sales for Chicago
Symphony events there have fallen by about one-third since 1990. The
pavilion seats 3,100, Mr. Kauffman said, and the symphony averages audiences
of about 2,300. That's a lot of empty seats.

All over the Western world, the alarm is sounding that classical music is in
trouble. Orchestra subscription sales are dropping widely, in some cases by
as much as two percentage points a year. Ensembles are not balancing their
budgets. Audiences are getting older; young people are turned off by
classical music. The Chicago Symphony can no longer sell decently even at
its own festival. So, at least, goes the refrain.

Is it true that people don't want classical music anymore? Or is it just a
question of how to give it to them? And is it even possible - heresy of
heresies - that they are being given too much of it?

By their very nature, orchestras cannot follow the laws of supply and
demand. Major orchestras give their musicians contracts for 52 weeks a year,
then have to figure out how to occupy them. This is one reason orchestras
have summer festivals in the first place: to give the musicians something to
do.

This does not always mean that they are responding to a burning desire on
the part of a music-starved audience. Take the New York Philharmonic's
Summertime Classics series, a set of eight concerts in June and July
representing the lighter side of the classical repertory. The Philharmonic
began the series last summer and sold to about 60 percent of capacity. It is
quite possible that the series will do better this year, but it is also
clear that it was not exactly leapt upon by a starving public.

In fact, a glut on the market may be a problem for the orchestra business as
a whole. Even people who like classical music may not want or need quite so
much of it. It's one thing at Tanglewood, the summer home of the Boston
Symphony Orchestra in Lenox, Mass.: people make special trips there and plan
to spend several days listening to music. It's another thing in the heart of
New York or, as with Ravinia, in a suburb of Chicago, where people may
decide to take in a concert on the spur of the moment.

Mr. Kauffman noted that one of the orchestra's problems at the festival was
its longstanding tradition of offering three concerts in a row, on Friday,
Saturday and Sunday. No matter who is performing with the orchestra, he
said, one of those concerts always fails to do well. Recognizing that
members of his target audience may go away on weekends, he is considering
breaking with tradition and offering some orchestra concerts during the week
instead. 

It does not help that classical music clings to its traditions, which, like
this one, can hold the field back in the 21st century.

"The marketing of symphony music hasn't changed in 20, 25 years," Mr.
Kauffman said, pointing out that rather than working to win over new
audiences, the average newspaper advertisement for a classical event simply
lists names that are probably unfamiliar to a majority of readers.

Classical organizations are slow to recognize the need for change in other
ways as well. The Philadelphia Orchestra has two summer homes: the Mann
Center for the Performing Arts, an outdoor setting in Philadelphia, and the
Saratoga Performing Arts Center in upstate New York.