Community Arts

We believe we met our basic artistic goals for this project: 1. Create a musical experience that speaks to the soul by approaching challenging topics with honesty, hope, and inspiration. Bach's Cantatas 8, 78 and 72 allow a glimpse into Bach's emotional life and beliefs, and the music has the ability to inspire hope and confidence in the face of life's many challenges. We believe that the program effectively portrayed the emotions of loss ("indeed my weak heart feels fear, worry, pain from Cantata 8), healing (That blood which doth my guilt annul it makes my heart feel light again from Cantata 78) and acceptance (Who trust in God on him relies from Cantata 72) we had wanted to share. We believe the performances effectively portrayed those emotions. 2. Broaden our Bach Society of Minnesota community by including St Paul students in our activities. A highlight of the concert was inclusion of the St Paul Central Singers in the concluding chorale of each cantata. It was wonderful that they had the experience of being on stage with professional musicians, and the students' enthusiasm also benefitted the musicians and singers. It was also wonderful to have the students' families and friends in the audience, which definitely diversified Bach Society of Minnesota's audience. 3. Provide the opportunity for all the musicians, professional and amateur, to be challenged musically in an environment supportive of their success. Musicians and singers continue to express appreciation for the respectful environment Bach Society of Minnesota creates at both rehearsals and in performances. Involving students at the February 27 concert also provided an opportunity for singers to take the younger singers "under their wings." There is always benefit to teaching aspiring young musicians, and experienced professionals see their work in a new way as part of this process. Overall, we feel the concert was a success. We enjoyed working with musicians and singers who have been part of previous Bach Society of Minnesota concerts. Because of the size of the orchestra and chorus, there were people who had the opportunity to perform together for the first time. Working with the student choir was also a very positive experience, and brought a sense of freshness to the professional performers. Singing in both a Baroque style and in German was challenging for all, but we were pleased with the performance. It was helpful that there was a student with very good German pronunciation who helped the other students. The process would not have worked nearly so well without the benefit of all the work that Martha Graber at Saint Paul Central High School did with the Central Singers so that they were so well prepared coming in to the project. Bach Society of Minnesota would definitely work with a student choir again, assuming they had already had excellent leadership and training so they were ready to work with professional musicians without a great deal of intensive rehearsal time together. Bach Society of Minnesota's Twin Cities audiences are generally about 48% adults under 65, 48% adults over 65 and 4% students. The February 27 concert had more adults under 65 than usual - about 60%. We believe this is primarily because parents and other family members of the student choir members came to the concert. Our audience is usually white middle to upper-middle class; the February 27 concert was more diverse, with more Latino and Asian-Americans. Again, this was primarily because of the inclusion of the Saint Paul Central High School choir in the concert. Marketing for the concert was done through press releases to local media (print and broadcast) as well as Facebook and MailChimp mailings. For the first time, we also sent information to the music departments at colleges and universities throughout the state, in hopes of attracting more college students. Since the concert was held on Hamline University's campus, we did have two students attend who would otherwise not have attended a Bach Society of Minnesota concert. This year Bach Society of Minnesota has put more emphasis on accessibility. The Board adopted an official Accessibility Statement clarifying that the organization is committed to ensuring equal access to concerts, that care is taken to select wheelchair accessible venues, that ASL interpreters will be provided by request, and that large print programs will be available at all concerts. There was an audience member in a wheelchair at the February concert, and several large-print programs were used. No one requested an ASL interpreter. Bach Society of Minnesota continues to look for ways to broaden and diversify its audience. We have been generous in providing complimentary tickets to musicians and singers, in hopes that they will include younger and more racially-diverse people. The Bach Society of Minnesota board has been discussing broader outreach efforts for the 2016-17 season, and will continue to seek out schools to partner with in hopes of attracting a younger and more racially diverse audience. 120 people attended the concert. 68 were adults, 48 were seniors and 4 were students. 36 people (primarily families of student singers) received complimentary tickets. Audience members expressed positive feelings about the concert. Some (particularly family members of student singers) indicated that it was their first time listening to a concert of Baroque music.