It Takes Awareness of the Demographic in the Region

One of the biggest mistakes that a symphony board can make is oversight its area's demographic. Knowing the demographic can help the board plan programs that will foster the interests of the specific minorities that reside in the area.

To help illustrate how vital this is, I will explain the mistake that the formerly known, San Jose Symphony made when it failed to take the demographic into consideration, and in result, failed to make enough ticket sales to survive.

This is a picture of the Imani Quintet, a diverse group of musicians who were recently involved in the Stockton Symphony's Harmony Stockton program to promote diversity in music . This is an example of a program that would appeal more to a diverse demographic. 

The San Jose Symphony; Its Background and Demise

The San Jose Symphony was established in 1877 as American Born European musicians were increasing parallel to the rapid increase of European immigration. The market for American classical music was at an all time high at this time, but started decreasing in the late 1900's. The demand for classical groups declined greatly, which caused the San Jose Symphony to struggle with financial and budget controls, as well as consumer preferences and competition in the surrounding Bay Area. According to Wolf and Glaze, authors of And the Band Stopped Playing: The Rise and Fall of the San Jose Symphony, the Symphony also missed good opportunities to reach out to the minority demographic, as well as made poor choices in building a new symphony hall with insufficient and restricted funds.

The San Jose Symphony still could not foresee its termination in their near future even through its long list of bad decisions and circumstances. One of the opportunities that they missed out on was reaching out to the great minority population of the Santa Clara County. Because this population typically is not characterized by the usual concert goer, it takes a bit more effort to attract them to symphony functions.

Some examples of how symphonies in the past have adapted to community diversity are:

• The Saint Louis Symphony created the In Unison program in collaboration with black churches in the area and worked with other programs located within Saint Louis
• The Long Beach Symphony Orchestra partnered with a Hispanic museum in order to reach out to their large Hispanic population and hired a Mexican music director to be able to communicate effectively with the Spanish-Speaking community
• The orchestra in North Carolina changed their outreach program completely to target many different communities of specific cultures

Most all symphonies have now implemented programs to reach out to their communities, proving that it is an absolutely essential in running a functional symphony orchestra.

Evidence for this post was found at And the Band Stopped Playing: The Rise and Fall of the San Jose Symphony by Dr. Thomas Wolf and Nancy Glaze. View the whole document here.