Community Arts

The primary artistic goal of this project was to provide an interesting variety of musical selections specifically tailored to the interests of each audience. Honeywell Concert Band performed a total of 11 concerts at 10 different venues. Due to age, mobility, economic status, or geographic location, the audiences at each venue are underserved with respect to live performances of musical art, specifically concert band performances. The Honeywell Concert Band successfully accomplished this goal by performing a well-planned mix of light classics, marches, jazz, Dixieland, Broadway musicals, and other show tunes. Each audience was very responsive to the Honeywell Concert Band's performance and the opportunity to hear featured small groups and soloists. We tried to accommodate two new venues this year, and while one worked very well (Friendship Village) the other (Bel Rae Senior Living) was too small to accommodate our group. We were able to provide enjoyment to the residents, but artistically it was not a good fit. We will continue to seek out new venues, but will be mindful that they are large enough to host a group our size. The format of this project seems to work well as evidenced by our audiences' reactions, and each venue's eagerness to have us return. We made a special effort to include audience participation this year, and would like to continue to increase that aspect of our performances, especially at the care centers and senior citizen complexes which make up 60% of our venues. The Honeywell Concert Band has been serving the intended audience for many years, and we have a good understanding of that community. We estimated we would reach 1200 audience participants, and we were successful in reaching 1455. We continue to struggle with balancing the early start times desired by many care centers and senior complexes with the daytime employment of many of our band members. We have now moved most of our start times to 7:00 rather than 7:30 with little if any inconvenience to our musicians. We estimated our musicians to be 35 in number, and while that number fluctuates we are close with our current roster of 33 members, and are actively recruiting new members. Our project's goal is to serve those typically underserved by the arts, and live concert band performances in particular. This year, 70% of our venues are care centers and senior facilities where the residents are quite diverse. We performed at centers with varying religious affiliations, economic situations, and level of independence in living. The other 30% of our venues are public parks where our free concerts attract young as well as older people, and include families with small children. Among our musicians there is diversity in ability, and experience. The Honeywell Concert Band chooses music that can challenge each musician, but is not beyond any member's capabilities, and time is spent improving our basic musical skills. The venues served by this project have many accessibility attributes due to public regulation such as zoning and building requirements. Programs are printed in large print format and provided at each concert. There is never a fee to the venues or audience members for Honeywell Concert Band performances, and there is no fee to participate as a musician, making the project accessible to audiences and musicians alike. Our practice area at Honeywell is also ADA compliant, and we have a wheelchair available to any member who desires to use it. The 33 members of the Honeywell Concert Band played 11 concerts to audiences totaling approximately 1400 people, slightly more than we anticipated. We engaged the musicians and audiences with several new numbers acquired for the project, and feedback from the venues was very positive, with each of them requesting we return again. Our members overwhelmingly indicated they were pleased with the band's performance.