21st Century Conductor

The Search for Shining Eyes is quite an old report from the Knight Foundation, 2006, surveying the nature and funding of innovation in US orchestras over a period of years.

You can download the full document here:

shiningeyes.pdf

• Despite predictions of the death of classical music and its audience, there is healthy support for the art form. The probems of orchestras stem not from the music they play but from the delivery systems they employ.
• An orchestra cannot be all things to all people. The mission of an orchestra needs to be clear, focused and achievable.
• Regardless of their aspirations for artistic excellence and prestige nationally and internationally, orchestras must be relevant and of service to their communities and to the people who live there if they hope to find the resources to survive.
• Transformational change in orchestras is dependent on the joint efforts of all sectors of the orchestra family – music director, musicians, administration, and volunteer leadership and trustees.
• Despite those who suggest a single magic bullet is adequate to address the serious problems that orchestras face, only a combination of many strategies will be effective.
• Free programming and outreach do not turn people into ticket buyers. They simply turn them into consumers of free programming.
• Traditional audience education efforts – targeted to the uninitiated – generally end up serving those who are most knowledgeable and most involved with orchestras.
• There is growing evidence that participatory music education – primarily instrumental lessons, ensemble and choral programs – will turn people into ticket buyers later in life.
• There is no evidence that exposure programs for children – especially the large concert format offerings for school children – will turn them into ticket buyers as adults.
• To grow their audiences, orchestras need to do more research on those who do not attend their concerts rather than focus on those who are already buying tickets.

The lessons for funders are equally compelling:

• To produce transformational change in a field, the dollars and time invested need to be commensurate with the scale of the field involved.
• Dollars are only a small part of what a committed funder can contribute to assist institutions and a field. Technical assistance, research, symposia and publications, among many other things, can also contribute significantly to program outcomes.
• Funders need to be clear with themselves and with applicants and grantees about the results they expect from a grants program even if this seems prescriptive. Vague instructions produce equally vague responses.
• Thoughtful programmatic innovation simply cannot happen when an institution is in the midst of financial crisis.
• Strategic change in grantee organizations cannot happen without strong consistent leadership. Turnover of staff and board will be a fundamental challenge to effectiveness.
• Sometimes the unintended results of a foundation program are more significant than those that were planned, and a funder should be open to them.
• If something matters to the success of a program, funders should not be afraid to take a hard line, even if this poses some difficulties for grantees. (In the case of Magic of Music, the involvement of music directors was crucial, yet to the program’s detriment, the foundation backed away from setting stiff requirements that would have inconvenienced the directors.)
• If a grants program is to be evaluated, it is best to think about evaluation from the very start and design the program in a way that makes uniform data collection and meaningful evaluation possible.