The Delaware Symphony Orchestra’s staff was on the road last week.
DSO staff attended the 79th Annual League of American Orchestras National Conference in Houston, Texas June 6 through the 8th.
The annual gathering of orchestra professionals and advocates offer sessions and workshops on topics ranging from funding to technology. Audience development is always on the agenda with orchestras sharing successful ideas for building audiences.
Delaware Symphony Orchestra CEO J.C. Barker says audiences “hear with their eyes. That’s a very crude way of explaining that what we’re giving, and what orchestras give in general, is an experience to the audience. It’s an acoustic, live experience like no other, and for us to second guess what we’re doing at the expense of quality is not the way it works.”
Other conference topics included volunteering, community engagement, marketing, financial planning and music education.
Barker says most European countries prize music education, while in the US, it is on the decline.
“I do feel and I am hopeful that in Delaware we are on the right track to working toward a better foundation in the arts, especially in education - early education, all the way through high school, and, of course, in secondary education as well.”
Barker says these peer gatherings serve to remind orchestras that while audiences attend for the whole experience, they are consistently drawn to the music and the musicians.
The DSO is preparing for next season as four conductors will vie in four different concerts at The Grand for the full-time baton in Copeland Hall.
Delaware Public Media' s arts coverage is made possible, in part, by support from the Delaware Division of the Arts, a state agency dedicated to nurturing and supporting the arts in Delaware, in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts.