Project Grant

For the Memorial Day Concert, we expect to provide support for local veterans and their families. For the Briggs' Lake Concert, the Lewis House Dedication, the Star Rail Museum Dedication, the 125th Anniversary Exhibit Concert at the Stearns County Museum, and possibly for the opening ceremonies for the CanAm Games, we plan to not only help the various groups celebrate their event, but also create new patrons for the Saint Cloud Municipal Band by introducing ourselves to different groups of individuals. Each of our concerts includes interactions with the band director explaining the history and stories behind the pieces we play so people can understand and relate to the compositions. In this way, we instruct as well as offer a potentially new basis in which patrons can understand what the composers had in mind. Based on last summerÆs Barden Park Survey, we expect to again see the results that support the preferences of taxpayers when the Legacy Grant was created by voters on November 4, 2008. Last summer, our patrons showed that many were families composed of several generations coming to the concert. Several noted that our performances were unique, not available in other cities or in other states. The Saint Cloud Municipal Band Concerts are a source of civic pride, and great entertainment. About demographics: Great performance û sad it is last û grandson and daughter really interested and look forward to Thursday! Really like marches û my brother and son belonged to the band Threeû year old Shane marched all night and made friends with the drummers! Great fun to bring grandkids and watch them get into the music.We plan to continue surveying our patrons. We added a question about the zip codes of our patrons who attended the 2011 Fall Paramount Concert to get a better idea of the market area we serve. Our market for that concert drew people from the Twin Cities as well as from Central Minnesota. We also ask about music preferences, ages, and comments the patrons have about the individual performances. When we gather sufficient numbers of surveys from various demographics and zip codes, we can do cross-tabulations to determine any statistically significant differences. With this information, we can better serve our patrons by playing what they know they like as well as gently introduce new musical genres into their eveningÆs entertainment. In addition to surveys, individuals in the audience will come up and chat with band members. We request the band members share these ôqualitative evaluationsö with the rest of the band, and we will thus share the stories with the granting agency.