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Greg Sandow on the future of classical music

At the League conference

June 9, 2016 by Greg Sandow

In this post:

  • I’ll be at the League conference.
  • My thoughts on the conference theme, diversity.
  • classical music institutions don’t do enough planning, when they look for a new audience.

conference blogI’ll be at the League of American Orchestras conference tomorrow, Friday, June 10.

Not speaking or presenting anything. Just hanging out. If you spot me, say hello! I love meeting people at these events.

And of course I should have put this on the blog a little earlier!

Conference theme

The theme of the conference is diversity. I did a post on that, this week. in which I said:

  • We shouldn’t think diversity just means selling tickets to people not like us. That’s almost a knee-jerk, mechanical goal, and may not be doable, unless we do what should be done…
  • We must participate in the lives and culture of the people we want to reach. Go into their communities, and learn from them. Share what matters to them. This may seem hard to do, but the reward — in purely human terms, beyond whatever we gain professionally — can be radiant.

As I said, I can help with this as a consultant.

Something else big

Strategic planning. For instance, on how to find a new, young audience.

How many classical music institutions really do this? Really sit down in advance of taking any steps to reach the goal, and strategize what the goal really is. How progress to it can be measured. Who the target audience is, what they’re really like, what their art and culture already are.

And, most important, how can the goal best be reached? Who else has reached it? What can be learned from them?

Big corporations, launching a new product line, would certainly do this. Create a task force, reseaerch both the potential market and how others have done anything similar to what’s being planned. Bring in consultants.

I don’t think we do this much. Instead, we plan ad hoc. “Let’s try this:” Maybe we try things with a full heart, really loving what we’ve planned. But our chance of success isn’t nearly what it could be, if we did the proper planning.

Something I’ll post more about next week. And something else I can help with as a consultant.

I’m happy to talk about this things (and anything else) with anyone I meet at the conference!

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Greg Sandow

Though I've been known for many years as a critic, most of my work these days involves the future of classical music -- defining classical music's problems, and finding solutions for them. Read More…

About The Blog

This started as a blog about the future of classical music, my specialty for many years. And largely the blog is still about that. But of course it gets involved with other things I do — composing music, and teaching at Juilliard (two courses, here … [Read More...]

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