Community Arts

Since the inception of this program 10 seasons ago, the Minnetonka Orchestra developed and refined a model that successfully meets our artistic goal of offering engaging classical music programs for young audiences. Programming is focused on shorter, more accessible compositions. A high school student who is the winner of our Young Artist's Competition performs a movement of a concerto so that the young audience hears a performer who is nearly like them. Concerts have a casual atmosphere in which the orchestra director offers engaging information and humorous comments from the podium. The orchestra members dress in costume for the Spooktacular Concerts, leaving the impression that neither classical music nor classical musician are "stuffy." We also use techniques that keep the audiences actively engaged. At some concerts a guest young "conductor" is selected from the audience to lead the orchestra in playing a march (with help of the director). Spooktacular Concerts always include a parade, during which costumed audience members march around the room to strains of a short classical piece. All of these thoughtful approaches to concerts continue to make them a success with young audience members, as well as adults. Although we have created a highly successful model for young people's concerts, these concerts have potential hazards. One is programming. While the director is aware that shorter pieces have greater appeal with this audience, he sometimes strays from that standard. In the previous season, he selected one longer composition in addition to several short familiar pieces. As a result, survey feedback suggested that these concerts were less successful than usual. Taking that feedback into consideration, musical selections for concerts during this grant period were much more appropriate in length and audience appeal. Another risk is the quality of the director's engagement with the audience. Ideally, the director will provide comments that provide insight or information about the composition to be performed, as well as an element of humor that prevents the program from becoming too serious. Achieving the appropriate balance is a challenge. The orchestra director for the first two concerts, our Founder and Artistic Director for 42 years, tended to lean towards the silly side of interaction. This definitely lent the appropriate tone to the concert experience, but did not always provide sufficient substance. In August 2016, our director abruptly retired and an interim director conducted the last two concerts funded by this grant proposal. To our surprise, this director provided a much better balance of substantive information and lighter comments that put the audience at ease. The search for a permanent conductor is underway. Our challenge for the 2017 concerts will be to obtain buy-in and understanding of our approach by the new director who will be responsible for leading these concerts. Large numbers of adults and children attended these concerts, some of whom are repeat attendees from last season's programs. We offered the programs in four locations, making the concerts more easily geographically accessible to a wider audience. All concerts were offered free of charge. However, there is an admission charge to enter one of the four venues for these concerts are held: The Arboretum charges an admission fee for non-Arboretum members. Although this is less desirable for our goal to make our concerts free for all, our appearance at the Arboretum attracts an audience that is 2-3 times larger than other concerts, due to Arboretum's ability to promote the concert to its thousands of members and to the fact that the Arboretum venue offers many other attractive options for pre- and post-concert activities. Given we offer three other concerts in other locations that have no financial obstacles to attendance, we will continue to include the Arboretum as one concert venue for these concerts in hopes of reaching as wide an audience as possible. One way we have expanded the diversity of our audience is to offer one concert that is "sensory friendly" for autistic children. For the past two years, we have collaborated with those leading an education program for autistic children and have been able to attract over a dozen children with autism to these concerts. The setting for this concert is more intimate. Autistic children are encouraged to participate as performers in the concert. This means that some may join the orchestra in performance of a short piece. Additionally, a particularly skilled young person with autism has performed a solo composition for cello. The impact of this solo is stunning. Audience members and musicians in the orchestra are able to see the great potential those with autism have to offer and to gain a window into this mysterious disability. Unfortunately, the sensory friendly concert was offered during Minnesota Educators Association weekend, which may limit the number who are able to attend. Next season, the concert will a week later so that it more closely coincides with Halloween and to more heavily promote this concert to the autistic community. 99% of audience survey ratings on various dimensions of the concert experience were positive. The dimensions include conductor, pace of the program, length of the program, location logistics (parking, accessibility etc.), venue, program variety, repertoire, and time of day. Over 450 people attended these concerts, approximately 25% of whom are children.