Orchestras Canada

We’ve got three recommendations this week.

First of all, some moderately provocative thoughts by Kennedy Center CEO Michael Kaiser on ticket pricing for performing arts organizations, on the Huffington Post, here.

Next up, some good, common sense marketing “new year’s resolutions”, courtesy of the team at Arts Consulting Group.  You can find them here.
Even better, you can sign up on-line to get their monthly newsletter in your inbox.

Finally, the League of American Orchestras is now making its award-winning Symphony magazine available on-line.  In the perky communique from the League, they state

“To celebrate the arrival of 2010, we’re introducing SymphonyOnline. Every new issue of the award-winning Symphony magazine is now available online – with all the same in-depth reports, provocative essays, and cutting-edge research that you love – plus additional content not found in the print issue.  Read, see, and hear Symphony wherever you are – at work, home, or on your iPhone. Live links, audio and video, and the ability to forward on your favorite article are just some of the exciting features of SymphonyOnline.”  You can find it all here.

If you’re interested in either general trends around arts participation and attendance – or if you’d like some more specific insights into how these trends are playing out in the orchestral world – then this week’s recommendations are for you.

In June 2009, the (U.S.) National Endowment for the Arts published Arts Participation 2008:  Highlights from a National Survey.  This report reflects early findings from the most recent Survey of Public Participation in the Arts, the fifth such study done by the NEA since 1982.  You can download a copy of the study here.

Several months prior to the release of the study, the League of American Orchestras commissioned a team of consultants from McKinsey to analyze and reconcile available data on orchestra audiences, with a goal of helping American orchestras better understand their audiences—now and into the future.  We believe this is important work with implications for Canadian orchestras, and we have posted three League-authored documents about it on the Orchestras Canada website here.

Every September, we send out membership renewal notices to our professional, community and youth orchestra members – and we’ve got a couple of particularly good, time-sensitive incentives to offer to our members this year!  While the details are included in the renewal packages as well, we’ll take this opportunity to highlight some of this year’s special features:

For all of our professional, community and youth orchestra members, we’re delighted to announce a new partnership with the League of American Orchestras, through which your orchestra can get a free, three-month trial membership in the League as an additional benefit of OC membership.  The trial period runs from October 1-December 31 – so an early reply is requested.

For our professional orchestra members, we’re pleased to announce the opportunity to take part in a pair of research projects: 

Taking the Pulse:  an economic snapshot is a quick survey instrument we have designed to help our community form robust responses to the current economic downturn.

Human Resources in Canadian Orchestras is a new study we’re launching, in partnership with the Professional Association of Canadian Theatres, that will help codify pay scales, benefits, and position descriptions for key leadership and administrative roles in Canadian orchestras.
 
Watch for your membership package in the mail this week.

The League of American Orchestras has recently launched a new resource centre on its website entitled Economic Crossroads, collating helpful materials from a range of sources on dealing with challenging economic times.  We could replicate the initiative – or we could give credit where credit is due!  We’ve chosen the latter option, and you can link to the League’s new page here.