Project Grant

We expect orchestra musicians to master and relish access to the new rhythms and beautiful melodies. A week before the first rehearsal Conductor Erik Rohde on his own website provided music videos and recordings of El Salon Mexico, Huapango, Danzon 2 and Gabriel's Oboe so that the music could become familiar before the first sight-reading. All orchestra musicians will have practice CD's to use until the concert. By final rehearsal we expect strong preparation and level of comfort with this challenging music. Access by audience members relatively new to our area will be aided by publicity posters and bookmarks in at least four Mexican restaurants and two churches which feature Spanish-language mass. Restaurant owners have expressed pleasure at the program choices, recognizing especially Marquez and Moncayo as central to their culture. Skill levels are expected to rise to new rhythms and harmonies in these noted compositions. Musicians' evaluative comments after the concert will indicate their satisfaction while rehearsal progress toward professional delivery will indicate artistic growth. We expect orchestra strength to remain firm at approximately 65 musicians. Young orchestra musicians will be motivated and the Suzuki students attending will be motivated to attempt versions of Spanish-influenced music with their instructor. At the March concert when advanced Suzuki students join Buffalo Community Orchestra on-stage to perform a piece in the Beautiful Blue Danube" repertoire, we will expect new numbers of students able to participate. Attendance by 1/3 of the musicians and several dozen audience members at the conductor chat will indicate educational advancement. This concert, with emphasis on folk music of Mexico and Hispanic New York as well South America, should meet with enthusiasm from audience members of all backgrounds. The posters, conductor chat, radio talk, concert comments, and post-concert reception will all feature discussion of this wider heritage. Measured against average fall attendance figures over the past five years, this concert should attract an increase over the past average. At the post-concert reception we will carry out the Mexican-American theme with table decorations and napkins. There we will expect comments expressing audience pleasure at the new music and their awareness not only of the Mexican composers but also Copland's delight with Mexican folk music. We expect to hear many state that the music is new to them, but they liked it!Audience numbers exceeding 250 and ticket sales of at least $1800 will reflect how well our publicity has reached out into nearby communities; we will hope to see new faces from our immigrant and student populations in the audience and at the post-concert reception, where we will directly solicit feedback on our performance of this music. These figures and impressions will be analyzed at the post-concert board meeting. At least 30 Suzuki students and parents participating in the pre-concert performance will indicate the on-going strength of our partnership with the Montrose Suzuki String program. We are re-structuring our website and will monitor the number of 'hits' reaching the new site in advance of the concert. The conductor will send e-mail to all orchestra members giving his evaluation of the performance. Individual musicians will be asked their reactions to the music and Buffalo Community Orchestra's execution of the compositions. These are qualitative rather than quantitative assessments but will reflect the level of creativity and suitability of our concert programming. If the conductor and a strong majority of the musicians are enthusiastic about our concert, this will indicate success."