Community Arts

The concerts took place as planned on April 30 and May 1, 2016. The quality of the concerts was outstanding. 86% of choir members responding to a survey rated the concert as "better than expected," and passed on positive comments from themselves and from audience members. The chorale had adequate time to learn the music, with weekly rehearsals and practice files for work at home. The artistic challenge for the choir was learning not only the notes but proper vocal tone, dynamics, and emotional presentation of the work, and significant time was devoted to these areas during rehearsals. Significant time was also devoted to learning the proper German pronunciation for Mendelssohn Psalm 42. Grant funds allowed the hiring of outstanding soloists and orchestral musicians, which added greatly to the professionalism of the performances. The Mendelssohn required a men's quartet. The hired soloists for the quartet also sang the rest of the concert with the full chorale, which added to the strength of our tenor and bass sections. Everything occurred as planned and there would be no significant changes in planning and rehearsing for a future similar project. We feel we successfully reached our intended community, in choir participants (44), local orchestral (22) and vocal soloist (5) involvement and audience. Total audience was 243, compared to 250 predicted. We advertised in local and city-wide newspapers, using Facebook and online calendars, mailing postcards to previous concert attendees, putting up posters in local businesses and at the concert venues, and emailing our patron list. We asked membership to send a prepared email to their friends and also asked all Facebook users to re-post concert information on their pages and also to ask their Facebook friends to "Like" our page. Finding ways to build both audience and membership is an ongoing challenge, with an increase in both numbers the goal. Participation, both as a musician and as an audience member was accessible to all who wished to participate. The verbal response from patrons was positive, with standing ovations at each venue. Many members commented in a survey that they loved the chosen concert repertoire. One member responded "The music was challenging yet beautiful. It felt like quite an accomplishment to learn and perform it." The survey also collected suggestions from members about how to build audience, and allowed each member to voice general suggestions about what they liked and disliked about the concerts. Results will be discussed at a future board meeting. 243 people attended the concerts. 72 chorale singers/vocal soloists/orchestral musicians participated in the project. 93.1% of singers responding to a survey felt participation in these concerts enhanced their ability to express themselves creatively.