Are symphonies doomed?

I've noted here that some folks in the classical-music world think that the ongoing struggles of a lot of professional symphonies and opera companies are solveable, perhaps by looking harder at the field's conventional wisdom, but it's worth noting at least one expert in the field who thinks otherwise. Former Wall Street Journal music critic Greg Sandow, himself a trained singer and composer who is married to a New York Times critic, thinks that "reasonably soon, the era of classical music will be over."

After a reader responded by noting the outstanding online sales results for classical pieces, Sandow replied that sales of recordings can't support the costs of producing the music. For me that reveals some shortsightedness in his thinking, but anyway some readers more knowledgeable than I posted some interesting thoughtful responses on that blog linked above. I learned of Sandow's writing from the Artful Manager, which I can't recommend highly enough to anyone with an interest in today's arts world.

Meanwhile I came across a couple of fun news items about innovation and creativity in the world of opera. The Metropolitan Opera in New York is doing some cool stuff like a free live simulcast of its opening night outdoors at the Lincoln Center. And in San Diego there are now several restaurants regularly holding opera open-mic nights which I'm guessing could be either fun or dreadful for patrons on any given night...but regardless it also seems like a good sign of grass-roots vitality for the art form.

Outreach does not build audiences?

Classical music keeps popping up as a topic in the not-for-profit sector these days, and it's not all about big established institutions: turns out that at least in Chicago and New York there is now a thriving alternative classical-music scene. Not being a big classical fan myself I wasn't really aware of this in Chicago until taking my present job, in which capacity I've become acquainted with the dozens of small independent chamber music, opera, symphony and classical-dance groups around here. There are more than 300 non-profit music organizations in the Chicago region now, not even counting the non-profit multipurpose arts councils and such.

Meanwhile the world of big orchestras is abuzz right now with some startling conclusions of a huge long-term experiment by the large James S. and John L. Knight Foundation. Having spent 10 years and $13 million investing in audience-building efforts by a dozen symphonies around the country, the foundation commissioned a frank assessment of the results. They were trying to figure out why so many orchestras outside the top half-dozen are chronically on the edge of financial collapse?

Among the Knight conclusions: "Free programming and outreach do not turn people into ticket buyers." Also that there is a large audience interested in classical music in the U.S.: "The problems of orchestras stem not from the music they play but from the delivery systems they employ." And this interesting thought: "Orchestras need to do more research on those who do _not_ attend their concerts," that is, audience research is invariably conducted among those who have already gotten the message and is therefore useless for figuring out how to attract new ticketbuyers.

While clearly some of the conditions Knight found are specific to symphonies, I was struck by how much it sounded just like the classical dance, opera and repertory-theater sectors. Don't the folks running those institutions think that the way to entice new people is to "get them in the theater once" with a free ticket? Isn't most audience surveying by theater/dance/opera conducted among folks who are already bought in?

Fundraising in the buff (almost)

I bet every fundraising staff in the free world has, at some point, mused half-seriously about doing a cheesecake calendar for their charity. C'mon, admit it -- "Conservation Cuties"? "The Men of [your organization name here]"? "Taking It Off To Clothe The Homeless"? You've teased your executive director about posing for the cover shot, you've made board members giggle at a Development Committee meeting, you've gotten slightly alarmed when younger staffers start seriously discussing layout concepts. You know who you are. Cause really at some point doing another silent auction just doesn't get the blood flowing, right?

Well a young opera company in Chicago has actually done it, and earned a nice writeup with photo in today's Chicago Tribune. The artistic director was the first to pose; each month's photo is a real-live singer posed as a character from a well-known opera. Cue Aretha Franklin soundtrack: "Divas are doin' it for themselves..."

I know I speak for the entire dot-org readership base (ahem) in promising to, strictly as a gesture of non-profit solidarity, buy a copy. Or two -- a perfect stocking-stuffer for the opera fan in your life eh? Cause you've never seen Salome quite like this (well not at the Lyric anyway, which is the point OperaModa is trying to get across).