Atlanta Symphony Orchestra: A Model Community Resource

Atlanta arts organizations generally are big on education and "outreach" (or whatever you want to call that sort of thing. (I've served on the boards of several mid-size theatre & visual arts groups, so I have some familiarity with these issues.) Of course, funders love these programs, and there are good reasons for doing them; the challenge is getting donors to realize the necessity of subsidizing the basic mission of the nonprofit intitution, whether it be orchestras, opera, ballet, theatre, or visual art.

Our recent experiences at the ASO have not included large numbers of empty seats. We tend to go on Fridays, and even with contemporary music on the program, the orchestra seats and loge (lower balcony) have been around 90% full. I think the upper balcony rarely fills up - I don't want to sit up there, and it's one reason we need the new symphony hall!

Here in St. Louis, the Symphony has had their "Community Partnerships Program" for over a decade now, where musicians from the orchestra perform in venues outside of the main symphony hall, both in Missouri and in Illinois. I even got funding for one such event at a local university and hosted it. For a first doing doing that, it attracted a nice crowd, 100 for a setup of 120 seats, but I was disappointed that not more students came. Still, one can't complain there overall.

Contrast the attitude of Atlanta, St. Louis, and Austin with one musician from the New York Philharmonic, quoted in this 2004 article: "Are you sending the Yankees to Newark?" (Just so people know, Mr. Fogel is quoted elsewhere in the article.)

Atlanta Symphony sounds like they have really embraced the idea of being a community resource. One similar idea I have heard in my arts administration grad program is the idea of "public value" of the arts. Atlanta Symphony is a great model.

Another band that is very good at outreach is the Austin Symphony Orchestra, playing in high school gyms as well as annual concerts to which kids from all over town are bussed. Two or three chamber music societies in Austin also work in the schools giving lessons. We have only to look at Venezuela's national 'el sistema' to see how valuable outreach can be, taking kids out of slums and making musicians out of them; and 'outreach' is the perfect word for reaching out as opposed to sitting around whining about the state of 'classical' music.

One puzzle, though. At Saturday night's concert -- featuring pleasant 20th century French music and a Gershwin piece -- two-thirds to half of the prime orchestra seats were empty. It was a big college football game night, but couldn't these wealthy corporate and individual subscribers manage to find bodies eager to fill this embarrassing emptiness? This was not a unique situation, I fear. As occasional out-of-town visitors, we can usually depend on getting good Saturday night seats on short notice. In contrast, our hometown orchestra in Sarasota is typically sold out on Saturday nights.

It is fantastic to read about Atlanta's programs and especially the high percentage of musicians volunteering. I think a lot of orchestras would like to do more in this field - or have already tried to do more - but wind up dealing with "service count" issues in their contracts.

Henry, do you know of some orchestras who have successfully dealt with this situation?

While I have heard of some anecdotally, I prefer not to guess in a sensitive area like this - so perhaps some folks involved with orchestras taking different approaches to this issue might let us know.

Henry

Any idea what might persuade them to banish that word "outreach", with its implications of an inner core extending occasional tendrils to touch those outside the magic circle?

The programs sound wonderful, and there can never be too much music education! All the more pity to undermine the good work with that alienating label...