Filling seats at the symphony
Here's a letter I received when I opened my e-mail today, following Sunday's Arts package. The writer, Steve Dieters, a regular concert-goer, sends this:
"You have mentioned in the last couple of weeks the declining attendance at the Symphony. ... The target marketing that Boston is using sounds interesting, but it is just a morphing in another more specialized direction of the elitist attitude that pervades this industry. Until they realize that they are entertainment that can be for a larger number of people and acknowledge that they are competing against other forms of entertainment (ballet, Broadway series, movies, TV, sports, cable, the internet, video games, etc. etc.) in order to occupy a finite amount of time people have available charging ticket prices that are way below the range of the "sale" tickets they are now promoting, they will continue to flounder.
"It's interesting that they seem to think the attendance problem is the fact that Music Hall is too big (I've never gotten my arms around the logic of that one) as opposed to how do we fill the place up!
"The video screens and parking/safety issues were discussed at great length at the focus groups I attended in the mid-90's and they were met with shrugs or guffaws by those who were seeking input or diligently commented to a legal pad to be filed away with other input to be ignored.
"One thing I know for sure is that as we have discussed over the years is that the audience is getting older and not being replaced as they stop coming for one reason or another. I can't help but think that upper management at the CSO is just putting in time till they retire and then it will be someone else's problem.
"Until the Symphony, and this industry for that matter, adopts a radical new business model it may very well go the way of chariot races. You may think that is a ridiculous comparison, but this is a business model that cannot sustain itself. No question about it. I will continue to go to concerts, but I have to admit I'm running out of gas for a wide variety of reason ranging from higher ticket prices to in my view programing that is getting increasingly stale."
Got ideas to help the symphony? Opinions? Let me know!
posted by Janelle Gelfand at 12:36 PM
2 Comments:
at 1/16/2006 06:03:00 PM 
Anonymous said...
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at 1/16/2006 11:42:00 PM 
Anonymous said...
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Post a Comment*On Sunday I read about the second half of the symphony season by reading the full page ad for single tickets in the newspaper. This was the first information I have found on the symphony since I received my season brochure.
Like most of the arts going public, I have a schedule that precludes the purchase of season tickets. I don't keep brochures and I depend on sources such as the newspaper or email postcards to keep me informed of events.
The symphony has not emailed or mailed me anything outside of the season brochure. I don't know why I am not on that list, but I know that I am not alone in the exlusion from this list.
The newspaper does not help the Symphony's cause. The newspaper can't seem to print a calendar more than once a week with more than one activity per day in a city that has a symphony, a ballet, an opera, several theatre companies, dance companies and a conservatory which advertises hosting the most performing arts events in the state of Ohio.
One could read about upcoming events, but the reviews that are associated with the Symphony are not in the arts section. They are in the front cover of the front section. I don't read that part of the newspaper as I receive my daily news from other sources. I stopped reading the arts section as the newspaper stopped covering the arts.
Between the Symphony not being able to find a way to contact me outside of their season brochure and the community information not being printed in the newspaper, I would say there is a bigger problem than studying the effect of crime at Music Hall.
Cincinnati is a fractured community. It is time that the city make a community effort to reach out to those people who have made the arts great in Cincinnati. It is also time to recognize that there is a new audience of students, young professionals, non-season ticket holders who would be happy to be a part of the Cincinnati Arts community if only they could find out where things were being held, when they were being held, who was performing, history about the organizations, information about the event....if an event even existed. It is not up to the ticket buyer to search organization by organization to find out how they can fill their time. It is the responsibility of the newspaper to reflect the community and the responsibility of the organizations themselves to figure out who is out there and how to stay in touch.
Celebrate the arts and they will come!
The CSO is is in the same mindset as a lot of other orchestras. That is, why worry about selling tickets. In tough financial times just have it's employees take concessions.
The economy is on fire. The CSO's endowment is invested in this economy. Whoever is in charge of the CSO's investments maybe should consider taking a refresher course in business.
Making Music Hall smaller so that the CSO has sellout crowds is the same thinking that makes concessions the way to balance the budjet. Go figure.
I read in your newspaper how the CSO is world class and has a great conductor. This, I agree. Now, how about the "brains" of the organization stepping up and do their part.
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