Wonderful post Afa. I really like the idea of musicians (and really everyone who makes up an orchestra (audience, board, ushers, staff, musicians, etc.) as ambassadors and applaud Sphinx for offering training to its musicians on how to be ambassadors. I often wonder what would happen if orchestras empowered musicians to give out a certain number of free tickets to neighbors and people they meet in the community to get them to try their first symphony concert. I think listeners need to become fans, not only of classical music, but like in sports of individual artist athletes (which in the orchestra sense means “musicians”). Your efforts remind me a bit of another Detroit musical institution, Motown, which trained its musicians to meet royalty and be TV personalities, knowing that public relations were everyone’s responsibility. Looking forward to our conversation in a few weeks.
Giving the musicians the option to use free tickets and/or discounted tickets to give to people does work when implemented properly. We did find that a percentage of the orchestra was using their tickets. The catch is to get them to invite new people each time instead of handing them out to the same friends and family that want to go. Having some form of “training” would be a good idea!
Mark Clague:
October 14th, 2011 at 5:42 am
Wonderful post Afa. I really like the idea of musicians (and really everyone who makes up an orchestra (audience, board, ushers, staff, musicians, etc.) as ambassadors and applaud Sphinx for offering training to its musicians on how to be ambassadors. I often wonder what would happen if orchestras empowered musicians to give out a certain number of free tickets to neighbors and people they meet in the community to get them to try their first symphony concert. I think listeners need to become fans, not only of classical music, but like in sports of individual artist athletes (which in the orchestra sense means “musicians”). Your efforts remind me a bit of another Detroit musical institution, Motown, which trained its musicians to meet royalty and be TV personalities, knowing that public relations were everyone’s responsibility. Looking forward to our conversation in a few weeks.
Shoshana:
October 19th, 2011 at 7:30 pm
Hi Mark,
Giving the musicians the option to use free tickets and/or discounted tickets to give to people does work when implemented properly. We did find that a percentage of the orchestra was using their tickets. The catch is to get them to invite new people each time instead of handing them out to the same friends and family that want to go. Having some form of “training” would be a good idea!