Not Board

I did a stupid thing.

I went to the dentist and found out that she is now the head of the board of the little local orchestra I played with last season. We talked. I gave some opinions and suggestions. She asked that I put them in an e-mail to her.

What I have observed is that they need to work on their choices of repertoire to maintain the large audience that was present at the last concert. The number of people was a surprise to everyone. Proof that there is an audience for classical music here on the Coast. We just have to keep them coming.

With that in mind, I was rather disappointed that the next concert in January will feature Brahms, Beethoven and Copland. All very nice. All very good. But, is this what you want to follow a well-attended concert of classical dance music? Many members of the new audience will return for one more concert but will they then attend another concert ever again?

Wait. It gets worse. There is a proposal that the May concert will feature a Schubert Mass. A Mass. Good for sophisticated audiences but not here. There will be few people in attendance after that, then we will have to re-build to try to get an audience back.

So, what I proposed is to plan ahead for a series of concerts for the next two or three years thinking of terms of balance for the audience. I didn’t want them to think that I am talking about Pop Concerts – which I really hate to play. I do not want to dumb down any music for any audience but we can be more creative in our choices. For example, advertise classical music everyone has heard but may not know. For example, every movie trailer recently features Wagner’s “Flight of the Valkyrie” or Carmena Burana’s “O Fortuna.” In other words, we are educating the audience but they have already heard the music.

I also want to bring back a short Children’s concert in the library at 10:00 on a Saturday morning. Let’s grow the audience.

Sound good?

Well, here comes the stupid part.

I opened my big mouth. I think I am going to be asked to either sit on the board or at least work on a committee to choose repertoire.

I may have to duck and weave. I really had so many committees and task forces and meetings at the school that I swore I would never go another one for the rest of my life.

Note to self: Keep your mouth shut.