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I’m gratified by some early support for yesterday’s post, about feeble orchestra press releases.
And Marna Seltzer, on Facebook, agreeing with what I said, hoped I’d give some examples of good press releases. Good thought, Marna. I’ll do that.
And now a thought for today. About our hoped-for new audience, the one we want, younger people, millennials and above. We need to know who they are, what they want, what matters to them.
A Washington Post article provides a reminder. Its subject may seem far afield: It’s about why big corporations want same-sex marriage to be legal throughout the U.S.
Why should that matter to us? Because of one reason the big companies cite. Their best employees might be gay. Or gay-friendly. So how can they ask these people to, let’s say, move to Georgia, where the company might have important business to do, but where gay rights aren’t protected?
As a quote in the Post makes clear, even non-gay employees might not want to be make this move:
”If I walk down the street and I don’t see visible signs of diversity — young or gay or people of color,” said Richard Florida, an urban theorist and author, “then I start to worry this won’t be a place for me.”
That’s because cultural diversity — which goes beyond a visible presence for gays, but includes that — is a key value for younger people today. We in classical music like to think that a symphony orchestra makes a city desirable, a place where people might want to be transferred to, or move to on their own. But — as Richard Florida pointed out long ago, in 2002, in his book The Rise of the Creative Class, — that’s no longer true. Younger people, especially the creative ones corporations now look for, want other things. Like a diverse cultural scene, with diversity easily seen as you walk down the street.
So now let’s bring this come to classical music. A millennial moves to an American city that’s culturally diverse. Washington, New York, Chicago, you name it. And now this person goes to a classical concert. A door slams shut. No more diversity. All she sees are older (and well-off) white people.
For millennials, this is a turnoff. Doesn’t mean they’ll never come, but why would they come very often?
How can we fix this?
A true story, from one of my Juilliard students. Someone the student knew — a family member? I don’t recall — came to visit from the midwest. Loved New York. Loved the spectrum of people we see on the street.
And then went, with my student, to a classical concert. And was speechless. “Where are the black people? What happened to them?”
Concerning the dearth of African-American, or Latino, people, you’re going to have to canvass on the streets – people who appear to have active lifestyles and wide interests – and ask them what (if anything) might lure them into buying a ticket and attending an event. Also, what would definitely turn them off. Having sample CDs and DVDs of concerts might lead to their actually listening to a piece on it. The canvasser can make themselves available, perhaps, to answer any questions, via social media. Keep in touch with prospectives, to see how their opinion and/or considerations might have changed since the previous encounter. It’s going to have to be a full-time hands on, feet moving, sharing, with no pressure, just to find out what might work and might not work. Classical music will win new listeners, ticket buyers, concert attenders, and on and on, when the personal touch gives them the motivation to take next steps, and stay in touch themselves. That’s all, just market, market, market, market. The prospectives sell themselves once they have been sufficiently communicated with and feel comfortable sharing opinions, observations, feelings, reactions positive and negative. Stuff like that.
I respectfully submit that, insofar as it’s Richard Florida’s creative class that you want to attract, you’re simply trading one highly educated, relatively affluent minority for a younger one (who won’t be young for long). (You note that the typical audience member at a typical classical concert today is both white and well off. But you quote your student’s acquaintance asking “Where are the black people?” Did your student mention whether it occurred to her to ask where the working class people were?)
Which is fine, I suppose, if all you want is to keep classical music funded for another few decades. But I don’t think that’s all you want to do.