[Dixielandjazz] OKOM for the College Crowd?

[Steve Barbone]

Here's a parallel idea about reaching out for a younger audience from
Washington D.C. (and also NYC) Perhaps the Jazz Societies might consider
other ideas, better suited to their operations, about making OKOM accessible
to a new and younger audience?

Bands, too, might figure out how to perform where the kids are.

Cheers,
Steve Barbone

Live From Washington, Opera for the College Crowd

NY TIMES - By DANIEL J. WAKIN - May 12, 2007

Students wandering into some college auditoriums on Sept. 23 may receive a
few unexpected lessons on subjects like the nature of Bohemian love,
consumptive heroines and life in a garret.

The Washington National Opera said it planned to simulcast a live matinee
performance of Puccini¹s ³Bohème² to 14 college campuses and 2 high schools.
The feed to the institutions will piggyback on an outdoor broadcast at the
Washington Monument, an annual event begun two years ago.

This season the Metropolitan Opera led the way with regular live and
recorded broadcasts. But the Washington Opera has taken a different tack.
The Met sends its broadcasts to movie theaters around the country, which
charge $18 a ticket. The campus simulcasts will be free. Two local movie
theaters will also have free showings.

³We are convinced that it¹s very important to try to make opera more
accessible,² said Kenneth R. Feinberg, the Washington Opera¹s president.
³We¹ve got to reach out and try to find young opera lovers.²

He said the other main goal was to spark interest among donors and
foundations to contribute money to the opera company. ³There is a
fund-raising effort behind this,² said Mr. Feinberg, who from 2001 to 2004
was the special master of the Sept. 11 Victim Compensation Fund. ³Whether it
will pay off, I do not know.²

The overall cost of the simulcast is about $500,000, which will be provided
by extra fund-raising, and will cover the expenses of the colleges and
schools in showing the opera. A similar simulcast, of a new production of
Verdi¹s ³Rigoletto,² is planned for the spring.

Mr. Feinberg and Plácido Domingo, the Washington Opera¹s general director,
praised the Met general manager, Peter Gelb, for introducing the widespread
simulcasts. But they took pains to set their own project apart, noting that
their showings were free and aimed at attracting young people to opera.

³We are so happy to make this simulcast free not only to our university
partners across the country, but also to local students and anyone who wants
a taste of top-quality opera,² Mr. Domingo said in a statement released by
his assistant.

The company named the institutions involved as Bryn Mawr, Princeton, Tulane,
University of Massachusetts, West Point, Wellesley, the University of
Washington, the University of Virginia, the University of Colorado, Temple,
Rice, the University of North Carolina, the University of Arkansas, Union
College, Brockton High School in Massachusetts and Lowell High School in San
Francisco.

Separately, the Washington Opera said it had an agreement with XM Satellite
Radio to transmit old performances over a 23-week period, although XM said
the contract had yet to be signed. XM¹s rival, Sirius, broadcasts Met
performances.