It’s always a pleasure to see orchestras get involved with Take A Friend To Orchestra (TAFTO) month and it’s equally thrilling to see the idea spread across the border to Canada. In today’s contribution, Edmonton Symphony Orchestra (ESO) New Media Specialist (I like how orchestras are defining these new positions), Philip Paschke, chronicles his organization’s recent TAFTO event. And true to his New Media Specialist title, Philip includes a video of the bloggers, tweeters, and other new media folk the ESO invited to their event as they share their observations about orchestras and new media…
Month: April 2009
TAFTO 2009 Contribution: Curt Long
Curt Long is a perfect example of the sort of fantastic orchestra executives you don’t hear enough about. After a long and successful tenure as Dayton Philharmonic’s executive director, he recently assumed the same duties with the Alabama Symphony. Curt’s Take A Friend To Orchestra (TAFTO) contribution focuses on how orchestras need to get outside of what he defines as the “comfortable, insulated insiders’ view of what audiences want” and work toward creating an environment that attracts and retains new listeners…
TAFTO 2009 Contribution: Sir Andrew Davis
It isn’t uncommon for one of Take A Friend To Orchestra (TAFTO) month’s contributors to play a little hypothetical artistic programming in his/her essay and for most, that’s as far as the exercise goes. But Sir Andrew Davis is a member of the limited club of music professionals who enjoys that responsibility on a regular basis and his contribution shares some real life experiences bringing newbies to concerts as well as having a little “what-if?” programming fun…
TAFTO 2009 Contribution: Brian Bell
When it comes to Take A Friend To Orchestra (TAFTO) 2009 contributions, listening is the new reading. Then again, why would anyone be surprised that someone with more than 30 years experience and hundreds of recorded interviews with classical musicians from all walks of life wouldn’t want to put his TAFTO contribution in recorded format? So give your eyes a rest and your ears a workout, here comes Brian Bell…
TAFTO 2009 Contribution: Alan Valentine
Just in case you’ve missed the point that what makes classical music enduring is its street cred built off of shocking the bourgeoisie before there was a bourgeoisie, Nashville Symphony President & CEO, Alan Valentine, steps in with a contemporary example of what history has been telling us for decades. It’s amazing what you can accomplish when you stop trying to micro manage how your audience experiences classical music…