Symphony
Working with the Columbus Symphony this week. They’ve recently recovered from a near-death experience (the orchestra was dark for 6 months) where all sorts of bad things happened. Despite this, the orchestra is playing very well. They are a great group of musicians.
There are challenges ahead here, and everywhere for orchestras “in this economy” (that dreaded and ubiquitous phrase). I tend to look at the situation very objectively. It’s easy to point fingers, and play the blame game, but it’s not particularly productive, I think. The objective problem is this: orchestras are non-profits, they need more donors and more earned income (audiences). We need to get more people excited about orchestral music. How?
Well I always put my self in the shoes of one of these “new people.” Why aren’t they coming? Do they hate music? I don’t know anyone who hates music, actually. We all know why “new people” don’t come to the symphony. “It’s stuffy, elitist, snobby, boring, not fun, and they don’t play the music I like.” That’s what they say, but of course most of them haven’t been to a single concert.
It’s the image.
Why don’t orchestras work on their image more? It’s the key. We’re doing all the right stuff. We play a variety of music in my orchestra, from Bach to Radiohead. No one can say we don’t have at least one concert that offers “music they like.” We add untold depth and riches to our community through our educational programs, and by playing the worlds most beautiful music at the highest level.
But not enough people know that.
Image. Image. Image.
Let’s start with the word “symphony.” If you are not a symphony patron, does that word have a positive, negative, or neutral connotation? I think for many it’s a negative, because of its stuffy, snobby vibe. But there’s another romantic side to the word that I notice in contemporary culture. (Justin Timberlake, for instance, in his song “My Love” — “if I wrote you a syyyymmmphony.”) Can we turn the image of the symphony to the romantic thing Justin croons about in his song? We need to start at the very beginning with the word — symphony — that defines us. With imagination, we can make the word what we want it to be.