Project Grant
ACHF Arts Access ACHF Arts Education ACHF Cultural Heritage
This Minnesota-themed concert will introduce audiences and performers to music by Minnesota composers and includes world premieres of two songs written for Great River Chorale's 15th anniversary season. The music is interspersed with narrations of poetry by Minnesota authors. A pre-concert conversation with composers will enhance the concert experience. Two performances will accommodate audience demand for this concert. Concert attendance will grow by 22% over 2014 holiday concert attendance.; Upon completion of this project the outcomes, which will be measured in large part by an audience survey, as well as the number of tickets sold, are expected to reveal the following: 1. Increased audience satisfaction (as compared to the 2014 survey responses) because of the addition of a second performance which will create more seating and better sight lines for the audience. 2. A 22% increase in audience attendance from the 2014 holiday concert's record-breaking attendance (more than 650 patrons), of which 10% are new audience members. 3. A 5% increase in attendance of audience members between the ages of 5 and 64. 4. At least a 10% increase of concert survey responses due to incentives for participation. 5. Audience and Great River Chorale members will gain increased knowledge and understanding of the compositional styles of contemporary Minnesota composers. 6. Great River Chorale members will experience individual and collective artistic growth and satisfaction as a result of preparing and performing the music in this concert. 7. Great River Chorale will add contact information from interested patrons to its mailing and email lists. The success of this concert will be evaluated by audience attendance, the number and type of tickets sold, quantitative and qualitative data collected from a concert survey administered to audiences and performers, and verbal feedback from the same. At each performance of Made In Minnesota: Music of the Season" the ticket stubs will be collected, counted and sorted to determine attendance and a breakdown of the audience by adults, seniors (age 65 and older), and students. Each concert program will contain an audience survey to collect quantitative and qualitative data from the audience. An example of the concert survey used at Great River Chorale's April 2015 concert is attached. A modified version of the attached survey will be created for the December 2015 concert and will include additional questions about county of residence and ethnicity. A link to an electronic version of the survey will be available on Great River Chorale's website and Facebook page. Respondents who submit a completed survey will be entered in a drawing to win Great River Chorale's 2014 CD "A Merry Little Christmas." Performers will also have an opportunity to give feedback about the concert experience. A summary of the data that is collected will be shared with the artistic staff and board of directors and will be used for future planning purposes."
Specific outcomes achieved as a result of this project include the introduction of music by living Minnesota composers and poetry by living Minnesota poets to audiences and performers who did not previously know these works, the world premieres of two new songs composed for Great River Chorale, and a pre-concert conversation with composer Laura Caviani and poet David Bengtson led by Great River Chorale artistic managing director Mary Kay Geston that explored the origin and inspiration for some of the music and poetry in the concerts. This activity also provided an opportunity for the 30 people in attendance to ask questions and interact with the guest artists. Another outcome of this project is due to advertising in a new radio market (Minnesota Public Radio) in an effort to target an audience interested in classical music. Verbal feedback from several first-time attendees indicated that the MPR advertisements were the single reason they purchased tickets to the concert. Quantitative evaluation of this project was done by counting the number and type of tickets sold, as well as by assessing the manner in which audience members learned about the concerts. Combined ticket sales for both 2015 concerts were 191 seniors, 191 adults, and 42 students, equaling a total of 424 audience members. When buying advance tickets online, purchasers were asked to identify how they learned about the concerts. This data showed that our audience learned about the concerts by (in descending order of frequency) hearing about it from a performer, receiving a seasonal mailer, seeing an online advertisement, reading an article in the Saint Cloud Times, seeing an advertisement in a church newsletter, receiving an email from Great River Chorale, and by word of mouth. Written and verbal feedback from audience members and participating artists provided qualitative feedback and is exemplified in the following comments: "Wow, your performance yesterday totally exceeded my expectations!", "The whole program was so wonderful: seamless transitions between pieces, interesting and varied choice of material, joyous yet professional, too.", "Thank you for programming and conducting the exceptional Christmas Concerts this weekend.", "A tenor in our church choir, who is not easily pleased, announced at our rehearsal that his ears were "happy" because of the quality of Great River Chorale singing!"
Other, local or private