Ideas for filling Music Hall
"If you feed them, they will come" seems to be the mantra of many orchestras seeking to fill their halls lately. It's working on Thursday nights at the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, whose "banquet" concerts bring out a good crowd. But on Fridays, the music just echoes off of all of those empty seats.
OK, so here's an idea. How about Happy Hour Fridays? It's something the Indianapolis Symphony will be trying in January. The theater-cum-Internet cafe will open at 5 p.m., with free food, drinks from a wine bar, Corazon Tequila and Jagermeister, and yes, Internet. A funky pop musician will perform in the lobby.
Then, you can chill out in a one-hour concert of mostly Mozart. The three-concert series will include a show of waltzes and polkas, and another one called "The Beat Goes On: Music of Baby Boomers."
For info, click here.
What are YOUR ideas for getting people to go to the symphony? Let me know!
posted by Janelle Gelfand at 5:35 PM
18 Comments:
at 12/06/2005 01:03:00 PM 
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at 12/06/2005 09:29:00 PM 
Janelle Gelfand said...
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at 12/07/2005 03:15:00 AM 
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at 12/07/2005 12:22:00 PM 
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at 12/07/2005 12:23:00 PM 
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at 12/09/2005 04:24:00 PM 
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at 12/09/2005 04:53:00 PM 
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at 12/10/2005 07:36:00 PM 
Chris Foley said...
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at 12/10/2005 08:49:00 PM 
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at 12/11/2005 05:08:00 AM 
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at 12/11/2005 03:53:00 PM 
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at 12/13/2005 10:49:00 AM 
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at 12/13/2005 05:50:00 PM 
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at 12/13/2005 11:36:00 PM 
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at 12/14/2005 09:59:00 AM 
Janelle Gelfand said...
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at 12/14/2005 10:27:00 AM 
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at 12/14/2005 01:23:00 PM 
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at 12/19/2005 01:59:00 PM 
Janelle Gelfand said...
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Post a Comment*This was exactly my idea that I posted a few stories below about the opera.
No offense, but women typically like the finer arts better than men and men typically like food and drinks a little more than women. Combining them together is the perfect idea.
Probably the toughest thing for a woman to do is to convince her man to take her to the orchesta or a like event. The lure of food and drinks would help bring them in and perhaps spark an unknown interest.
I agree. I think the worst thing the symphony ever did was to disband the Women's committee, which was 1,000 women all selling subscriptions and dragging their husbands to concerts...
hmmm. you know, janelle, i think maybe friday nights are a lost cause. perhaps it's time to re-think those evening concerts and re-schedule friday night programs to a combination of more friday morning ones, coupled with more sunday matinees. i mean, when i've attended sunday afternoon concerts they've seemed to be particularly popular with families -- and with the decline of the arts curriculum in our schools, it's particularly important to build new potential audiences while they are young.
also, for those who may have "safety" issues about music hall at night, mornings and afternoons may be more to their liking.
Friday mornings???? Are you serious. No one would go on a Friday morning.
Safety issues??? What are you talking about. You are probably in as much danger at home or work as you would be on a friday night at music hall.
Friday mornings???? Are you serious. No one would go on a Friday morning.
Safety issues??? What are you talking about. You are probably in as much danger at home or work as you would be on a friday night at music hall.
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
dear anonymous,
have you ever attended a friday morning concert? you would be surprised how many people do. especially students and elderly people. those concerts are held at 11 am, not at the crack of dawn.
as for "safety" issues, i was referring to perceptions, not particularly realities--although it is still necessary to maintain a sense of being street smart, as everyone should be in any situation.
i think we all realize that the media focuses heavily on crime stories and unfortunatly a lot of that occurs in over-the-rhine. but, for me, that isn't an issue because i know the CSO always has security guards on duty outside the hall and there are also cincinnati police who are quite visible along that block of elm street. regardless of all this, there are still going to be people who have reservations (no pun intended) about going to music hall at night. all i was saying is that for those people in particular, sunday afternoon or friday morning concerts might be a more appealing alternative.
For those of you that doubt the wisdom of weekday morning concerts, I refer you to the success of Vancouver's long-running Music in the Morning Series, which usually sells out on subscription. The concerts feature coffee at 10am and a concert at 10:30. Each week's offering runs Tuesday to Friday.
Chris from the Collaborative Piano Blog
Fine, we can have them in the morning, but do you realized how drunk people are going to get. If they do a little drinking before and a little during, the next thing you know they are leaving at 2:00 and heading to the bar. I just think that is way too much time to have people drinking. I guess you people (sande and cris) are "experts".
dear "anonymous",
and i guess it's safe to say that you are a crackpot.
how about programming some music by frank zappa? paavo's brother kristjan was given access to zappa's archives to prepare concerts for australia a couple of years ago and will be doing a concert called "Absolute Zappa" with his group the Absolute Ensemble in italy very soon. i mean, if zappa was good enough for pierre boulez to conduct, i certainly think that paavo might be up for it! :-)
sandye - you might want to try and think outside of the box every once in a while.
and your best example of that would be...???
I might not be the brightest person in the world (I didn't graduate high school) but I work hard on my thoughts. I am not even sure what box you are referring to.
Now kids, let's be nice. Remember the task at hand: Ideas for putting bodies in seats at the symphony. Some orchestras are trying giant video screens, cocktail parties, short concerts that include an explanation of Beethoven's Fifth, followed by playing it....
and the person posting as "sandye" at 11:36 pm was not me!
Now that what I am talking about Janelle, a change of pace.
Here's another idea. I just stumbled across an opera column I wrote, in which the company downsized its season, resulting in a higher average attendance. Is it heresy to ask whether the symphony should downsize its 52 concerts to a smaller season? There's clearly too much supply for the demand. With the left-over musician services, they could provide some heavy-duty music education, free to public schools. I emphasize the word free.
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