deep blue orchestral project v10.0 · 2010-06-09 · shari lindblom master of arts (research), 2009...

Audience connectivity in

orchestral performances

SHARI LINDBLOM

FACULTY OF CREATIVE INDUSTRIES, QUEENSLAND

UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY

MASTER OF ARTS (RESEARCH), 2009

Shari Lindblom Masters of Arts (Research), 2008

Key Words Orchestra, Audience, Connectivity, Sustainability, Performance, Music

Audience connectivity in orchestral performances Page ii

Shari Lindblom Master of Arts (Research), 2009

ABSTRACT

With the general global decline in the popularity and profitability of traditional

orchestras, ways to build new audiences, develop new repertoires and create new

networks and business partnerships are being explored.

The aim of this thesis is to analyse the various elements of a proposed Orchestral

Sustainability Framework and determine if and how these elements contribute to

an increased audience connection with the music performance experience.

Three main elements are explored in this Orchestral Sustainability Framework:

1. Social aspects of audience connection such as performer/audience interaction

and ways of emotional engagement

2. Artistic aspects of audience connection such as the impact of poly-stylistic

genres, blend of instruments and sounds and the importance of inter-sensory

perception using visuals, theatre and music

3. Economic aspects of audience connection such as networking with business

partnerships, impact of branding and marketing and the importance of

distribution channels

Audience reactions are central to this approach. Audiences from a variety of

existing orchestral models have been researched through case studies, interviews,

surveys, focus groups and participant observation. An orchestra, formed

specifically for this project, performed to selected audiences and at the Brisbane

Festival of Arts in 2006 and is now achieving commercialisation. The style of

this orchestra is characterised by audience and performer interactivity, theatrical

staging, visuals, spontaneity and less formality. Research has been conducted on

this orchestral model, with contributions from the musicians, directors,

producers, promoters and audiences.

The research hypothesis proposes that a greater connectivity with the audience

results in a more sustainable product, where sustainability is indicated by the

orchestras’ ability to generate a sufficient amount of box office revenue and

Audience connectivity in orchestral performances Page iii


sponsorship. A variety of different models are considered which demonstrate

orchestras that can achieve their mission of satisfying their audience, while being

financial viable.

The findings from the literature and the case studies clearly demonstrate the

importance of many elements in the sustainability framework to achieve a greater

level of audience connection with the orchestra.

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CONTENTS

ABSTRACT ................................................................................................ ii FIGURE INDEX ................................................................................................i TABLE INDEX i 1 INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................1

1.1 Statement of the problem ...........................................................................1 1.2 Rationale for the research ..........................................................................2 1.3 Overview of Research Approach................................................................4 1.4 High-level research methodology description............................................8 1.5 Research Hypothesis...................................................................................9 1.6 Overview of each chapter .........................................................................11

2 LITERATURE REVIEW .......................................................................12 2.1 Arts Marketing Historical Context. ...................................................... 12

2.2 The Classical Music Context ....................................................................14 2.3 The Orchestral Context ...........................................................................15 2.4 Social/Personal Aspects of Audience Development..................................19

2.4.1 Interactivity ...................................................................................................... 19 2.4.2 Style of performance......................................................................................... 21 2.4.3 Emotional/psychological connection ................................................................. 24 2.4.4 Musical learning ............................................................................................... 27

2.5 Artistic Aspects of Orchestral Product ....................................................29 2.5.1 Poly-stylistic music genres /Blends of instruments and sounds........................... 29 2.5.2 Inter-sensory perception.................................................................................... 31

2.6 Economic Aspects and Distribution Strategies ........................................34 2.6.1 Networking/Business Partnerships .................................................................... 34 2.6.2 Strong branding and marketing.......................................................................... 36 2.6.3 Entrepreneurial Management ............................................................................ 38 2.6.4 Distribution Channels ....................................................................................... 39

2.7 Conclusions from Literature ...................................................................41 3 METHODOLOGY..................................................................................43

3.1 The Research Project................................................................................43 3.2 The Interpretative Paradigm ...................................................................43 3.3 The Research Strategy..............................................................................47

4 DATA PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS...........................................54 4.1 Introduction to the Case Studies ..............................................................54 4.2 Data Presentation – The Deep Blue Orchestra ........................................59

4.2.1 Audience Survey Results - December 2005 ....................................................... 59 4.2.2 Audience Focus Group Responses – December 2005......................................... 61 4.2.3 Musicians Focus Group Responses – December 2005........................................ 65 4.2.4 Audience Survey Results – July 2006................................................................ 69 4.2.5 SMS Data – July 2006 ...................................................................................... 76

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4.2.6 Interviews......................................................................................................... 77 4.2.7 Reflections on Financial Data - 2006................................................................. 82

4.3 Data Presentation - The Queensland Orchestra ......................................84 4.3.1 Audience Survey Results - October 2006........................................................... 84 4.3.2 Audience Focus Group – October 2006 ............................................................. 88 4.3.3 Audience Survey Results – August 2006 ........................................................... 90 4.3.4 Audience Focus Group – August 2006 .............................................................. 94 4.3.5 Audience Focus Group – July 2006................................................................... 97 4.3.6 TQO Musicians Focus Group.......................................................................... 100 4.3.7 Interview with CEO, The Queensland Orchestra – April 2006 ......................... 102 4.3.8 Financial Reflections on Selected Concerts...................................................... 104

5 CONCLUSION.....................................................................................105 5.1 Key findings from the research data ......................................................105

5.1.1 Interactivity .................................................................................................... 105 5.1.2 Style of performance....................................................................................... 107 5.1.3 Emotional connection ..................................................................................... 108 5.1.4 Poly-stylistic genres........................................................................................ 109 5.1.5 Distribution .................................................................................................... 109 5.1.6 Inter-sensory perception.................................................................................. 110 5.1.7 Marketing and Promotion................................................................................ 111 5.1.8 Business Partnerships...................................................................................... 112

5.2 Conclusions .............................................................................................113 BIBLIOGRAPHY ..........................................................................................121

APPENDIX ONE ..........................................................................................127 APPENDIX TWO ..........................................................................................134

APPENDIX THREE......................................................................................145 APPENDIX FOUR........................................................................................153

APPENDIX FIVE .........................................................................................161

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FIGURE INDEX

Figure 1: Audience Connectivity Definition........................................................7 Figure 2: Deep Blue Orchestra Audience Role..................................................74 Figure 3: The Queensland Orchestra Maestro Audience Role............................87 Figure 4: The Queensland Orchestra Clocktower Audience Role ......................93 Figure 5: Audience Preferences: A Comparison by Concert ..............................94 Figure 6: Attributes of Connectivity................................................................117 Figure 7: Audience Connectivity Model for 21st Century Orchestras...............118

TABLE INDEX

Table 1: Orchestral Framework Factors ............................................................10 Table 2: 21st Century Orchestral Sustainability Framework...............................42 Table 3: Deep Blue Orchestra Financial Projections..........................................83

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STATEMENT OF ORIGINAL AUTHORSHIP

The work contained in this thesis has not been previously submitted to meet

requirements for an award at this or any other higher education institution. To

the best of my knowledge and belief, the thesis contains no material previously

published or written by another person except where due reference is made.

Signature:

Date:

Audience connectivity in orchestral performances Page 1


1 INTRODUCTION

1.1 Statement of the problem

Over the last two decades in both Australia and globally, there has been a

general decline in the traditional symphony orchestra’s audience base and this

phenomenon may be attributed to a number of factors:

The 21st century audience has exposure to a wide variety of entertainment (Wolf

1999; Kolb 2000; Kotler P. and Scheff 1997) and therefore the orchestral

product has increased competition. Audiences have an increased emphasis on

interactive forms of entertainment and are influenced by technological factors

(Lee 1998; Cook 1998; Gillies 2005). The breaking-down of social barriers and

a more multi-cultural society have created exposure and interest in a wide variety

of musical styles (Letts 2003; Shepherd 1991). There is a “high-brow” view of

classical music, which is created to some extent by the musicians themselves

(Small 1998). ‘When an art product once attains classic status, it somehow

becomes isolated from the human conditions under which it was brought into

being’ (Dewey 1934 p. 3). This is true of the 21st century orchestral art form,

which is still very similar to its 18th century form, and which has now become

isolated from mainstream modern society in many ways.

In addition, the escalating costs of attracting high profile soloists, touring costs

for a large orchestra, and lack of government and private sector sponsorship have

all contributed to the lack of economically sustainable organisations (Campbell

1996; Strong 2005; Brown 2003), as audiences alone are unable to ensure

sustainability.

Consequently, the orchestral community is investigating ways of building new

audiences, developing new repertoires and creating new networks and business

partnerships. This research investigates the social, personal, artistic and

economic attributes for the 21st century orchestra that will result in a sustainable

and revitalised art form.



1.2 Rationale for the research

The well-known music journalist and commentator Norman Lebrecht voices a

strong opinion with his comments on the situation facing classical music. He

believes that the ‘future of classical music performances hangs in the balance’

(Lebrecht 1996 p. 12). Lebrecht states that audiences are collapsing; state

funding and corporate sponsorship are dwindling. One of the reasons he

believes for this situation is that classical music has been ‘held hostage by

business interests’ (Lebrecht 1996 p. 18). High profile artists command huge

performance fees but their presence is required to draw in the audiences.

Corporations and government financially back orchestras and they are

increasingly demanding a return on their ‘investment’. Consequently there is

pressure to present programs that will appeal to the popular market, but the result

may be that the programs are not adventurous enough for classical music

enthusiasts.

One of the issues that modern orchestras face is presenting programs that relate

to the 21st century audience, which thereby develop a strong audience following

and connection. In considering this issue, it is important to assess the relevance

of the repertoire, the instrument sounds and presentation mode to the modern

audience. Percy Grainger was considering this same issue in 1927 when he

advocated that Australian orchestras reject the formula of instruments used in the

classical-romantic genres and include instruments played in the local

community, which at the time were the saxophone, piano and ukulele (Gillies

2005 p. 3). Audiences of the 21st century have had more opportunity to travel

and are more affected by global communications than previous audiences and

this means they have had more exposure to other cultural traditions and beliefs

(Kolb 2000 p. 21). This has resulted in a desire to integrate other cultural

influences into their artistic expression and so there is less interest to preserve

the traditional Western classical concert experience.

In his 2005 lecture, the prominent academic and musician, Gillies, discusses the

growth in popularity and success of the ‘smaller, younger and more fleet-of-foot



orchestras’ such as the Australian Chamber Orchestra (ACO). These styles of

orchestra are often driven by the entrepreneurial style and charisma of their

artistic director or general manager, such as Richard Tognetti, in the case of the

ACO. Entrepreneurship is also evident through an orchestra’s strategy for

distribution of its music. To keep up-to-date with the 21st century technological

advances and people’s growing familiarity with e-media, web-broadcasting is an

important distribution strategy of many modern orchestras.

One of the issues facing the orchestral art form is the distinction between art and

entertainment. The critics of popular culture and art believe that it is

‘predictable, vulgar, unsophisticated and superficial’ but similarly, critics of high

culture and art deem this to be ‘overly intellectual, snobbish and superficial’

(Kotler P. and Scheff 1997 p. 13). If orchestras succumb to presenting only the

more elitist styles of programming by concentrating on high art, then they

sacrifice audience numbers. It is interesting to note that Mozart’s Magic Flute,

which is today deemed to be high art, was actually commissioned by a music

hall to entertain its populist audience (Kotler P. and Scheff 1997 p. 13). This

research will demonstrate that there should not need to be a distinction between

art and entertainment. In the traditional concert environment the orchestra’s

musicians are separated from the audience by many physical barriers and

formality. In these traditional performances, ‘the heightened interactivity and

physicality that goes into producing music strives to hide its face’, as U.K.

violinist and journalist Lasserman describes (Lasserman 2002). Lasserman’s

opinion is that audiences do not have as good a time as the musicians at a concert

and that the lack of interactivity between the audience and the musicians is one

of the main problems. Inherent in these observations is the way arts marketing

must change to respond to new audiences, new products, new distribution

channels and new business models.

Much of the research has been conducted in the Australian context, which can be

seen as a microcosm of the international situation and so it is important to

understand the background and issues facing the Australian arts environment in

particular. Advertising and market research company Saatchi and Saatchi’s



research conducted in 2001 investigated how Australians view and interact with

the arts. Some of the recommendations in this report were to ‘promote personal

engagement with the arts’ and to ‘engage with the general public about the

relevance of the arts to their lives’ (Saatchi & Saatchi and Costantoura 2001 pp.

301 - 303). The Australian orchestras are part of the wider initiative in the

Australian arts scene which is considering how to develop a stronger audience

connection with their product. The orchestral art form has the potential to be

discovered by a wider range of people, if some of the barriers were dismantled.

This thesis explores a new arts marketing paradigm where the audience is at the

centre of the orchestral model and contributes to developing elements of

performance and style that build a deep connection with the music and orchestra.

‘Audiences, just like travellers, do not return to places that they have not

connected with’ (McLean 1999). This research focuses on ways to increase

audience connectivity and the way this contributes to building a more sustainable

21st century orchestral model. This study aims to find a way to bring a greater

connectivity for audiences with classical music. This approach concurs with the

concept of ‘musicking’, as described by Small (1998) in which music is

composed to be enjoyed and experienced by the general public. As the artistic

director of Orchestra X has quoted, ‘Beethoven has never gone out of style – it’s

the way he’s presented that’s past tense’ (Bamberger and Bradley, 2000).



1.3 Overview of Research Approach

The aim of the research is to analyse the various elements of a proposed

Orchestral Sustainability Framework, which have been constructed by

examining the key success factors for orchestral models and considering the

values of the 21st century audiences. The elements of the orchestral framework

are divided into three broad categories; the social and personal, the artistic and

the economic elements. By investigating if these combined elements contribute

to an increased audience connection with the orchestral performance, the

research aims to test if this leads to a model for orchestral sustainability.

It is important for this research to clearly define the selected interpretation of the

terminology. Firstly, the term orchestra refers to a ‘an organised body of bowed

strings, with more than one player to a part, to which may be added any number

of wind or percussion instruments’ (The New Grove Dictionary of Music and

Musicians 2003). It is assumed that the orchestra can include other more

contemporary sounds such as electronic components. The orchestral

organisation was also assumed to do live, staged performances and adhere to

some form of notated, composed repertoire, rather than take an improvisational

approach. Using these definitions, the term orchestra may then include the

nationally–run traditional style orchestras, but also include smaller

independently run ensembles.

In the context of this research the arts marketing concept of “product” refers to

the orchestral performance and its associated style and impact on the audience.

This definition draws on Colbert’s concept of a product having both a technical

dimension and a symbolic value (Colbert 2007 p. 30).

This study makes a distinction between orchestral music and classical music and

therefore it is useful to define the term classical music in the context of this

study. It is assumed that classical music refers to a broad genre of music, with

its traditions based on Western liturgical and secular music and spanning a broad

period from roughly the 9th century to present times (Kennedy 1995). It does



not only encompass works from the classical period in music, e.g. 1750 to

around 1830. Symphony orchestras are one of the main proponents of classical

music and this music is often scored for the traditional symphony orchestral

instruments. This study draws on research relating to aspects of classical music,

as it is relevant for the orchestral organization and market. However, this

research study will investigate not only the classical music repertoire played by

orchestras but other styles and genres that are starting to emerge.

A large part of this research focuses on audience development strategies and

consumer behaviors and values. Consumption of leisure goods is ‘experiential,

assessed at the moment of consumption’ and therefore ‘appeal is not only to

consumer’s minds but also to their emotions’ (Colbert 2007 pp. 94-95). To

understand the consumer or audiences’ relationship with the orchestral product,

the concept of audience connectivity is explored.

Audience connectivity refers to the audience’s ability and interest to relate to and

be involved with the music performance and the orchestra. The existence of

audience connectivity may then influence the audience to further increase their

ability and interest to relate to the performance and orchestra and so it is a two-

way relationship. It is also dependent on the characteristics demonstrated by the

performers and other aspects of the performance, which may encourage this

audience connectivity. The existence of audience connectivity may also change

and enhance the performance for the performers and so this also becomes a two-

way relationship. The research measures audience connectivity in both a

quantitative and qualitative way, by measuring how strongly the audience

connected and the reasons for the existence of this connectivity. The concept of

audience connectivity as defined here is shown in the following figure:



Figure 1: Audience Connectivity Definition

Distribution within an arts marketing paradigm is concerned with establishing an

appropriate relationship with the maximum number of relevant customers (Hill,

O'Sullivan and O'Sullivan 1995 p. 243). In this research, the focus is on

exploring the optimum distribution channels for the orchestral product to enable

a stronger level of audience connectivity.

Sustainability is defined as the situation where the orchestral organisation

produces an artistic product to satisfy its audience which results in a combination

of box office income and sponsorship funding. This enables the orchestral

organisation to achieve a level of financial viability, based on a time period of at

least five years. This approach assumes that a great proportion of the financial

costs to sustain an orchestral organisation can be met by the box office and so

the orchestra is aspiring to a mass market consumer model, or certainly a

significant niche market model. Organisations that produce a product with the

aim to reach a mass market must respond to the desires of the consumer (Kolb

2000 p. 30). This is one of the challenges for the orchestral organisations who

need to consider the mass market when making decisions on repertoire,

presentation and marketing. This is a different situation from an orchestral

organisation promoting a product based solely on the artistic vision, with no

consideration for the consumer desires and needs. For sustainability to occur

Audience Connectivity

Audience Factors Interest Ability Demographics

Performers Performance characteristics



there may be a requirement for a proportion of the orchestra’s income to come

from sponsorship and funding. Although this research has not focused on the

economic details of the sponsorship requirements, it does show that all

orchestras will require this component to some extent and cannot solely rely on

the box office income.

1.4 High-level research methodology description

With the many aspects to investigate within the hypothesis, a mixed paradigm

view has been taken to interpret the research data. Some patterns were observed

from a variety of orchestras in Australia and globally that lead to successful

orchestral performances and these have been used to form the main factors of the

framework. This has given a strong constructivist paradigm to the research.

Recently audience development strategies have moved towards understanding

audiences’ motivation and expectations but there is still a lack of research on

audiences experiences while attending performances (Kolb 2000 p. 159).

Consequently there is a paucity of research on participatory constructivism from

the audiences’ perspective. This has enabled this particular research study to

construct the framework of factors in a new environment and applying new

approaches.

The research study followed primarily a qualitative methodology to interpret and

understand how the audiences connect with the music performance experience in

the context of orchestral performances. It has drawn on a variety of empirical

devices to conduct the research and these are:

• Case studies

• Action Research

• Interviews

• Participant observation



The case studies facilitated exposure to the wide variety of aspects necessary for

a functioning, modern orchestra and this was important for the research,

considering the broad topics covered by the framework elements. By using an

action research approach with the main case study, the Deep Blue Orchestra, this

revealed how the implementation of certain framework elements into subsequent

performances helped in the development of this orchestra. The Deep Blue

Orchestra, which has been developed in conjunction with the research can be

described as ‘exploring orchestral futures, marrying the traditional string section

of the orchestra with digital and electronics and it combines with a DJ and VJ

with cameras, screens and lighting’ (Brisbane Festival program 2006).

While there is this interpretive perspective to the research, there is also a part

that is more quantitative in nature. The audience survey data allowed for some

quantitative analysis of audience numbers and their appetite for the inclusion of

particular elements of the Orchestral Sustainability Framework in concert

performances.

1.5 Research Hypothesis

By establishing that the orchestral framework factors help build audience

connectivity, the research aims to show that there can be a model of orchestral

sustainability in the 21st century. The research hypothesis is that: Increased

audience connectivity contributes to orchestral sustainability.

The factors comprising the orchestral framework constructed for this thesis are

shown in the table below. The factors in the framework can be classified under

three main areas of arts marketing; product, audience development and

distribution. However the categorization of the factors has been chosen to more

closely reflect the key aspects of audience connectivity and the framework is

therefore divided into the three main categories of social/personal, artistic and

economic.



Table 1: Orchestral Framework Factors

Social/Personal

Performer/

audience interaction

Style of performance

Emotional/

Psychological connection

Musical Learning

Artistic

Poly-stylistic music genres

Blend of sounds and instruments

Inter-sensory perception using visuals and

theatre

Economic

Networking/business partnerships

Strong branding and marketing

Entrepreneurial management

Variety of distribution channels

Using these factors to give a structure to the analysis, the following research

questions have been framed to support the hypothesis:

• Are there particular artistic elements that audiences desire and relate to in

a modern orchestral performance?

• What ways do audiences and performers interact to achieve a collective

experience?

• What are the attributes that enable a music performance to be a powerful

source of emotional and psychological expression, leading to a strong

connective experience for the audience?



• What are the important business strategies to strengthen audience

connectivity and growth i.e. marketing, distribution and funding?

1.6 Overview of each chapter

The next chapter of this thesis, the Literature Review, discusses the investigation

of other orchestral organisations and identifies some key patterns and themes for

audience connectivity and sustainability.

In the third chapter, the research methodology is discussed and the reasoning

behind the determination of the research hypothesis is described.

Chapter Four sets out the background to the two case studies and then follows a

detailed presentation of all the data attributed to these cases.

The final chapter discusses the analysis of the data and relates the findings to the

research hypothesis, with some conclusions to this research.



2 LITERATURE REVIEW

This review has been compiled from a variety of sources, including arts

marketing theory, literature, websites, journal articles, concert performances and

interviews. It concentrates on exploring the values of orchestral audiences and

finding a new concept of the orchestral product.

2.1 Arts Marketing Historical Context

There are some unique characteristics of attracting and sustaining consumers or

audiences for arts organisations. Colbert discusses how the approach of an arts

organisation can fall into distinct categories (Colbert 2007 pp. 9 - 10). An

organisation can take a market view and be involved in producing work for a

mass audience or take a product view and produce only unique works which may

or may not have wide audience appeal. Diggle in Colbert (2007 p. 11) places

‘the artist and hence the artistic product’ at the core of the marketing strategy. He

describes an approach where the focus is on getting a wide exposure and

appreciation of the artistic work but without necessarily satisfying any consumer

or audience need i.e. the product is created first, not the consumer need identified

and then developed. Colbert presents the differences between these approaches

and states that with a market-centred model, there is a ‘financial rather than an

artistic goal (Colbert 2007 p. 15). Some organisations display characteristics of a

hybrid approach, where a product view is also combined with financial goals and

satisfying the audience tastes and values.

Audience development strategies have evolved over many years. During the

1970’s, the focus was on understanding audience demographics and not on what

motivated audiences or their tastes for different cultural products (Kolb 2000 p.

70; Hill et al. 1995). During the 1990’s, many arts organisations researched

ways to increase audience attendance but did not focus on audience motivation

and tastes. The idea of ‘audiences as customers’ (Hill et al. 1995 p. 37) took

audience development strategies further with the concept that arts organisations

should then be concerned with understanding people’s relationships with the arts



product. Both Kolb and Colbert comment on the lack of research on audience

experiences while attending arts events, although there has been more attention

on the ‘experiential facet of consumer behaviour’ over the last twenty years

(Colbert 2007 p. 108). Colbert discusses the concept of how consumption of

leisure goods is experiential and therefore the ‘appeal is not only to consumer’s

minds but also to their emotions’ (Colbert 2007 pp. 94 - 95). He also goes on to

describe how aesthetic experiences demand that consumers engage emotionally,

in order to evaluate and respond to the experience. By assessing this experiential

dimension of arts consumption, we can understand audience’s motivation for

attending artistic performances in greater depth.

Appropriate distribution strategies for arts products are important to ‘arouse the

interest of new audiences’ (Hill et al. 1995 p. 190). The arts have historically

relied on public relations and printed promotional material as part of their

distribution strategy (Hill et al. 1995 p. 191). This has obviously started to

change with the growth of the internet and new technological opportunities such

as SMS text messaging, e-flyers and interactive websites. As Hill et al. (1995 pp.

233 - 235) discuss, e-marketing has an important role in attracting and building

new audiences. Relationship marketing is another concept which has strong

applicability for the arts organisation and Hill et al. (1995 p. 243) state that

distribution should be concerned with establishing an appropriate relationship

with the maximum number of relevant customers. Supporting this point is

Kolb’s (2000 p. 206) view that cultural distribution strategies need to understand

the importance of psychic or emotional connection as well as physical

connection for audiences.



2.2 The Classical Music Context

Botstein (2004 p. 40) states that the 20th century has seen a gradual loss of

general public appeal for classical music and the genre has ‘moved to the

periphery of culture and politics’. Supporting this statement are the results from

the Knight Foundation survey, conducted in 2003 in the U.S. This survey

(Brown 2003) found that the typical classical music subscriber is middle-aged or

older and classical concerts have difficulty in attracting younger audiences. In

addition, only about 10% - 15% of Americans have a close or moderately close

relationship with classical music. Another statistic from U.S. audiences in 2000

showed that classical music radio listeners accounted for only 1.5% of total

listeners. Botstein attributes the reasons for this classical audience decline due to

the affect of cultural, social and economic changes over the last century.

These changes in society have had an impact on classical music education, as

Kolb (2000) mentions, which has declined in schools and homes, but now the

younger generation is more exposed to music through the digital media such as

music video (Williams 2003). The growth of rock and pop music and its

popularity amongst the young has become their predominant form of musical

expression. Wolf (1999) describes the intense competition that now exists for

people’s entertainment dollar and time. There are now many other forms of

other entertainment available to people through television, films and the internet

and they have diminished the importance of a live performance, as it is no longer

the only means of hearing music.

Classical music has long been associated with the elite of society and it is seen to

be a form of entertainment to promote social ambition and privilege. This view

has clashed with the increasing egalitarian 20th century society as it appears not

to reflect societies’ current beliefs and consequently it can lose its relevance for a

20th century audience. Popular culture has become a source for high-art

practices in sculpture, photography and film but this cross-fertilisation rarely

materialised in new musical composition (Botstein 2004 p. 46). The classical

concert has become to a large degree a way to preserve the historical traditions



of the past but does the audience see it as being culturally relevant for today?

Dewey, the well-known aesthetician wrote: ‘When an art product once attains

classic status, it somehow becomes isolated from the human conditions under

which it was brought into being’ (Dewey 1934 p. 3) and this has become the

situation for the classical music world in the 21st century.

The distribution of music has also had a significant impact on the declining

popularity of the classical genre: pop and rock music is well adapted to

promotion through radio, as it is much shorter than longer classical pieces. This

air-time has increased the exposure of the pop and rock music at the detriment of

the classical. The growing importance of multi-media has not been utilised in

the distribution of classical music to a great extent, while the pop/rock world has

taken advantage of it with promotion of music videos and concerts using visual

elements.

The economics of staging a classical concert also need to be considered when

determining the causes for the decline in this form of entertainment. The costs

for staging a large scale opera with its numerous participants or the costs for

touring with a full symphony orchestra are high and ticket prices would need to

be much higher than they currently are to at least cover costs. The Strong Report

(2005) highlights this situation and demonstrates that most classical music

organisations simply cannot survive without public funding. Apart from Asia,

where interest in Western classical music has increased over the last 50 years,

Europe, North America and Australia all are under pressure to reduce national

subsidies for the high arts.

2.3 The Orchestral Context

The problems already identified here for the classical music world can be

demonstrated in more detail by considering the orchestral art form. The

problems faced by orchestral music in the U.S. are highlighted in a number of

studies such as the Wolf Report (Financial Condition of Symphony Orchestras

1992), which stated that the American symphony orchestra was ‘economically



fragile’ and in danger of becoming ‘both culturally and socially irrelevant’.

Other reports commented that it was important to popularise the orchestral

product by finding ways in which orchestras could reflect the cultural and ethnic

world around them. The strongest concern faced by most American orchestras

today is that of creating and maintaining a wider audience in an era of aging,

shrinking constituencies for the arts in general (Campbell 1996).

Authors researched identified some examples of orchestras trying to adopt a new

approach to their music performances and a good case is that of the

Collaborative Orchestra (The Collaborative Orchestra, Koch Label 2005).

Defying all preconceptions of orchestral performance, this orchestra has created

a new way for classically trained musicians to perform a rare genre-splicing

breed of music influenced by drum and bass, club, dance, jazz, funk, world and

contemporary classical music. The orchestra is a 22-piece ensemble creating

original orchestral-based performance developed from collaborations with artists

from contemporary, club, hip-hop, electronic and world music. The orchestra

aims to encourage new young audiences to experience orchestral-based

performance by taking it out to non-traditional venues.

Other various American orchestras are trying to address the problem of declining

audiences by including free concerts, theme concerts, mixed-media

presentations, pre-concert talks, new concert lengths and starting times in their

programs. The Baltimore Symphony's series of casual concerts, featuring talks,

interviews, and skits is an example of the orchestras’ adaptation to the issues

facing them.

Many authors refer to the importance of finding a new audience through an

increase in education strategies, which is increasingly understood by many

orchestras and over the past decade, there has been a virtual explosion in the

quantity and variety of education and outreach projects as American orchestras

search for new audiences and cultivate a new generation of listeners. Building a

stronger network within the community is also seen as an important strategy to

develop new audiences. Campbell (1996) presents a good example of this with



the major ‘Community Imperative’ launched by the Saint Louis Symphony

which includes a merger with the local Community Music School and

endeavours to build a bridge to the African-American community through area

churches.

The economics of the orchestral organisation has also changed. U.S. orchestras

operating revenues rose to an all-time high in 2003-2004 of 8% but the costs

over the same period also rose by 7% (Orchestral Statistical Report 2005). In

summary, many authors highlight the problem of the increasing costs to operate

a full symphony orchestra, which means revenue must grow even faster to

prevent a reduction in profits even if some strategies are working to increase

audience numbers.

Brown (2003) discusses that one of the elements important to audiences is the

ability to use attendance at orchestral concerts as a social event and surveys

show that this aspect could be exploited more by appropriate orchestral

marketing strategies. For some people, it is the social opportunity that triggers

the decision to attend a concert. This same survey also highlights the demand in

many consumers to want a variety of repertoire in their orchestral concerts.

“Cross-over” or poly-stylistic works that reflect a wider variety of consumers’

tastes in the 21st century are still not represented widely in the orchestral concert

repertoire. However, some classical artists such as Yo Yo Ma (www.yo-

yoma.com) and Nigel Kennedy have used such repertoire to increase their

popularity.

Brown’s American audience survey found that less formality in presentation and

more interaction between the conductor/musicians and the audience would

increase their enjoyment of the performance. This result refers to the fact that

many consumers would like to see the style of presentation of the classical

concert evolve. This desire was more evident in the younger ticket buyers and

so to attract a younger audience, orchestras may need to change their style of

presentation. One of the statistics that emerged was that 50% of people who

love classical music are not attending live concerts with any regularity and this



may be in part due to the stylistic presentation of the concert and to the way it is

marketed.

The European experience of orchestral music also has many similarities to the

situation in the U.S. Europe has traditionally had a much greater contribution to

funding from the state governments and together with its history and strong

culture of classical music, had not experienced the same degree of audience

decline as other countries. However, over the last decades the amount of

funding has reduced and audiences are also declining (Radbourne 2005). There

is a strong demand for contemporary music repertoire and cross-over style

music, so groups such as the Ensemble InterContemporain are developing new

audiences to the traditional symphony concert demographics. They have seized

on the desire for audiences to be more involved in their performances and offer

concerts where audiences can engage with the performers through more

performer/audience interaction.

The Australian situation is similar to the U.S. but is worse in some respects due

to the smaller audiences in this country and a lesser culture of private sector

philanthropy. An inquiry into the major performing arts sector (Nugent 2003)

was undertaken to see how some of these issues could be resolved. The report

gave the opinion that Australia ‘should have a vibrant major performing arts

sector that enriches Australian life and builds its image as an innovative and

sophisticated nation’. One of the suggestions for the symphony orchestras to

achieve this goal was to develop new works that allow a move away from

providing only the traditional classical repertoire. There were suggestions of

performing more popular repertoire as well as specific niche market

programming, to widen the audience base.

The Nugent Report also found that audiences’ attraction to well-known “stars”

such as high-profile soloists and conductors can provide a way of ensuring a

concert is financially successful and the Australian orchestras were encouraged

to use this way of deepening audience engagement with a performance. Another

recommendation was that arts companies change their financial dynamics



through strengthened private sector support, community participation and co-

operation with other artistic companies. By taking a more entrepreneurial

approach, the dependency on government funding would be reduced. Part of this

requirement would involve a more sophisticated packaging and marketing of

their products, so as to compete with other forms of entertainment.

2.4 Social/Personal Aspects of Audience Development

2.4.1 Interactivity

Lewis and Bridger believe that the new consumer demands to be involved in an

‘experience’ and has a greater variety of entertainment opportunities available so

greater focus must be placed on holding their attention (Lewis and Bridger

2001). One way to do this is to give the audience more of an opportunity to

participate in a performance. The concept of audience participation in a classical

musical performance is not traditionally a feature in this style of concert and

participation is usually confined to the audience taking a purely listening role.

This one way communication from musician to audience also does not

encourage the interaction between other listeners at a concert. If we take Small’s

(1998 pp. 4 - 9) concept of the word ‘musicking’ and his theory that ‘the

meaning of music lies not just in musical works but in the totality of a musical

performance’, there is an implication that the audience has a more active role in

a performance than just listening and that other aspects than just the music

contribute to the audiences’ enjoyment of the performance. One of these aspects

is the social element of a performance, which is one of the reasons people want

to attend a concert. Small comments on the social environment of the Ranelagh

Pleasure Gardens Rotunda in the mid 1700s, where music was part of the social

scene and he highlights the difference with classical performances today (Small

1998 p. 28). The modern concert hall creates a barrier between the audience and

the performers and the social aspects are confined to a short discussion in the

intervals. This style of performance is very different to the pop or rock concerts

or festivals that use the social aspect to great effect to promote their popularity,

especially with the younger audiences.



Arts in Motion is a spin-off company from the Philadelphia Chamber Orchestra,

established in 2002 when orchestral audiences were declining. It is described as

a non-profit organisation which has reinvented classical music (Arts in Motion

2007). They have successfully addressed the challenge to incorporate inter-

activity in their performances. In one concert, audience members had the

opportunity to use touch-screen kiosks which were located throughout the

museum in which the event was held. People listened to the music and the

corresponding visual images and communicated their feelings by “drawing” their

version of the surrealist figure, which was a feature of the performance. This

data was centrally collated and was dynamically updated to represent a morphing

collage of the image, from which the musicians were able to improvise and react

to the audiences’ vision (Haeker 2005). This example is a good demonstration

of the possibilities that interactive music technology brings to 21st century

audiences, as explained in more detail in Winkler (1998). The influence of

electronic and computer generated music on the music industry in general can

also bring opportunities for integration into the classical music industry and in

particular, the contemporary orchestra. By using interactive computer music

composition techniques such as Max, spatial sensors can be used to pick up

movement by performers or audience and influence compositional process. In

this way, the performance becomes truly participatory for the audience and may

increase engagement. Connecting with the audiences’ feelings can also be taken

to another level as it is done in Indian classical performances, where the artist

may change the program depending on the audience reactions.

Houston based Orchestra X stages multimedia events in offbeat venues and

through its informal, often interactive approach to music-making, the group has

developed an audience predominantly of people in their late twenties and early

thirties (Bambarger and Bradley 2000).

The technological influences on music are also an important element for the

classical music world. Guy Dammann at the Guardian Newspaper

(http://blogs.guardian.co.uk), talks about the opportunities that technology offers

in providing a more interactive approach for audiences and this can be exploited

http://blogs.guardian.co.uk)



by orchestras. The example referred to is the Liverpool Philharmonic, which

played a concert of Rachmaninov and Ravel for an audience of avatars on the

Second Life website in September 2007.

Radbourne (2005) discusses Ensemble Intercontemporain, which is a French

contemporary music ensemble with an international reputation for excellence in

this repertoire. The musicians with Ensemble Intercontemporain are identified

as soloists, though they play ensemble and individual works. This group

demonstrates a good example of performers’ engagement with the audience as

each artist is identifiable and thus allows the audience to connect more deeply

with each of the group. There is often the common element of engaging

personalities amongst the performers of many successful groups who are aiming

for this interactivity. The audience wants to relate to the performers. Similarly,

performers need to engage the audience with character, dynamism and a display

of warmth. Often it will be the flamboyant main conductor’s role such as

Zhubin Mehta of the New York Philharmonic (Cardinal and Lapierre 2003) or

lead violinist Richard Tognetti, Artistic Director of the Australian Chamber

Orchestra (ACO). This characteristic is present in the popular music world but

to a lesser extent in the classical music world, although there are a few

exceptions such as Nigel Kennedy or Vanessa Mae. In the past there have been

some widely popular classical musicians, such as the pianist Liszt, who had a

huge personal following.

These examples of interactive performers and performances show the power of a

collective experience, which can be greater than an isolated individual

experience.

2.4.2 Style of performance

Various authors suggest that today there is a strong emphasis on searching for

innovation, originality and making art and music more available to everyone

through less elitist strategies. Seabrook (2001) introduced the term ‘nobrow’,

which refers to the disintegration of the gap between ‘high brow’ and ‘low brow’

culture. Seabrook discusses the waning of the distinction between elite culture



and commercial culture. Today there is a strong emphasis on appealing to the

commercial market and this is evident in arts marketing strategies. The New

York Philharmonic with executive director Zarin Mehta, has displayed many of

these successful strategies (Cardinal and Lapierre 2003), as have Kronos Quartet

(Kronos Quartet 2006). These companies have not excluded the traditional

classical repertoire from performances, but have encouraged the development of

new works. The New York Philharmonic also gives a series of free outdoor

concerts in the parks of New York every summer which opens up the mystic of

the classical orchestra to an audience that may not have otherwise attended.

Lewis and Bridger (2001) believe that with the shorter attention spans of the new

consumer, variety in programming is also important. If audiences can identify

with a performance and there is relevance for the individual consumer, the

concerts will attract an increased attendance. Dewey also talked about this

concept seventy years ago, when he described the necessity for art to be given a

direct human context to result in a much wider appeal. These factors can help to

expand the younger audience demographic, which is often missing in traditional

classical concerts. If we consider that the meaning of music is directly related to

the expression of society’s views and style (Shepherd 1991), then the importance

of relating a social relevance to a performance is evident.

Small (1998 p. 64) describes another barrier for many people in attending a

classical concert, which is that a classical concert is conducted as a rather formal

ceremony or ritual and if you are not familiar with this ritual, you may feel

excluded from the group. The people that are familiar with the ritual feel

comfortable by knowing what is expected and so the segregation of a classical

audience is evident, with people classified into two groups, and it becomes more

difficult to belong to the second group. The formal style of a classical concert

prevents the audience from being more active. Passivity in the classical

audiences is a reasonably recent phenomenon, with an example of a 1820’s Paris

audience applauding spontaneously after striking passages in a Beethoven

symphony but today this would be frowned upon. As Orchestra X’s Axelrod

comments, ‘Beethoven has never gone out of style--it's the way he is presented



that's past tense’ (Bambarger and Bradley 2000). Orchestra X has also played

Holst's Planets in Houston's planetarium and Mozart to scenes from Amadeus, as

well as music on a Shakespearean theme to readings from the plays. Creating

this context for the performance helps people to relate more to the music and

contributes to breaking down the traditional ritual of a concert hall experience.

To attract a new customer base, which is the goal of many successful companies,

performances and the experience of the music must be fun. The importance of

comfort and flexibility in the concert experience are shown to be factors that

positively influence new consumers. One chamber music group, Music Room in

Canada (Preece 2001), has performances in intimate home surroundings, with

people sitting on the floor. Obviously for a larger audience this is not possible

but taking elements from the rock/pop concert world where the audience can

move about freely and socially interact, is one way of avoiding the confining

structure of traditional concert-going behaviour.

If many people feel disconnected from the performance style of a classical

concert, one of the reasons could be the way that the individual musicians and

performers relate to each other and as a whole. In a classical orchestral

performance, the conductor is the ‘medium through which the musicians relate to

the listener’ and their ‘personalities are submerged into the collective of the

orchestra’ as Small (1988 p. 80) describes. The players’ musical autonomy is

relinquished to the conductor and this is a hierarchical relationship. Jazz and

rock musicians take a more individual approach which allows the audience to

connect more with each performer. The hierarchical approach is a more

traditional and old-style way of working in society and this again reinforces the

ties with the past that the classical concert evokes, with the younger generation

of audiences finding it difficult to relate to this style. However there are some

examples of orchestras working on changing the style of performance to relate

more to the audience. Bramwell Tovey at the Vancouver Symphony engages the

audience with pre-concert banter, as do The Queensland Orchestra in their

Clocktower series.



Caru and Cova (2005) state that marketing research shows there is a growing

awareness of consumers’ preference for being immersed in a thematic setting

instead of being offered a finished product. They believe that there is a strong

focus on experiential marketing and consumers looking for a total immersion

experience that can transform. This approach demonstrates the importance of

being familiar with some part of the performance, relating personally to the

artistic experience in some way and the ability to investigate new elements of the

performance. Orchestras that can program with these aspects in mind may prove

to be more successful in capturing the 21st century audience.

The U.K. radio station Classic FM has sought to change the elitist image of

classical music and has successfully brought in a younger audience (Glover

2002), showing that breaking down the barriers caused by pre-conceived ideas

about classical music should not be solely confined to the concert hall. The

station format has an absence of ‘classical snobs and academics’ and aims to

create an inclusive culture that opens up the classical repertoire to a new

audience. They have had enormous success despite criticism that it has ‘dumbed

down’, and that their play-list does not truly represent the full classical

repertoire. However, it does show that some classical works can have appeal to

a large audience when the presentation style is less formal and less intimidating

to many people.

2.4.3 Emotional/psychological connection

There is a wide body of literature on the importance of the emotional connection

that music can bring to people (Cook 1990; Davies 2004; Gabrielsson 2004;

Langer 1953). The importance of the emotions that music evokes has always

been one of the main elements of a successful composition, but given

consumers’ focus on emotional fulfilment in the 21st century (Solomon,

Bamossy and Askegaard 2002 pp. 126 - 153), this point is increasingly important

today.

The effect of the emotional experience that music causes is one of the main

reasons that we engage with music, as Davies points out in Juslin and Sloboda



(2004). There are many musicologists who believe that having a detailed

understanding of the musical work and the context in which it was written, is

important to fully appreciate and relate to the work. Cook (1990) describes this

belief but also discusses the opposite view where the focusing on the

complicated analytical understanding of the work can detract from the aesthetic

perception and emotional engagement with the music. Over the last half century

the focus on the academic understanding of classical music has been very

important and so may have lessened the importance of the emotional

engagement.

Classical music has developed over the last century as part of a culture valuing

analytical thought as opposed to valuing its social or emotional context

(Shepherd 1991 p. 58). This may have introduced the idea that emotion is not

central to the music and as Gabrielsson describes in Juslin and Sloboda (2004 p.

458), ‘this has contributed enormously to the disengagement of the general

population from entire genres of music’. An example of this disengagement

came with Schoenberg and his concept of composition based on a mathematical

system, as was employed in his twelve tone system, which did not prove to be

popular and engaging with the majority of audiences. The focus for Schoenberg

was the intellectual rather than the emotional. However much of the classical

music repertoire does in fact utilise harmonic, melodic and rhythmic devices to

convey different emotions to its listener.

Music organises our conception of feeling into an expression of life experience,

wrote Langer (1953) and she describes the impact of music that draws the

imagination, or that references some symbolic meaning, which often has a

greater power to move the audience. There is a ‘sense of satisfaction engendered

through absorption in a piece of music’ is Cook’s (1990 p. 160) point of view

and similarly ‘the power of art lies in the sensory felt experience’ and

‘audiences, just like travellers do not return to places that they have not

connected with’ (McLean 1999). Music which investigates themes relevant to

modern society will have a greater chance of connection with the audience. The

Brisbane Festival 2005 performance of Credo demonstrated this, with many



audience members being moved by the powerful political message. However

Vancouver Symphony’s Tovey believes that if audiences understand the

motivation and relevance of a lot of classical music for today, this will increase

audience interest in performances. For example he comments that ‘Britney

Spears might write a song about rebelling against authority and feeling out her

sexual maturity -- well, that's exactly what Tchaikovsky did’ (MacDonald 2006).

Taking an anthropological perspective to the way listeners respond to music,

Becker in Juslin and Sloboda (2004 pp. 136 - 153) discusses the concept that the

situation and context of how we hear a piece of music and the listeners’ group

dynamics are crucial to the emotion felt by the individual listener. Davies in

Juslin and Sloboda (2004 pp. 23 - 44) also points to the effect the social

dynamics of the orchestra itself may have on influencing the expression of the

music and therefore on the listeners’ emotional responses. It is interesting to

consider Arousal Theory in the context of the classical orchestral performance.

Davies discusses this theory, which states that meaning in music is derived from

what listeners feel when listening to it e.g. the importance is put onto the reaction

of the audience. Often this is not seen to be of primary importance for the

programming and marketing of the modern day orchestra.

Cook also believes that by using different media such as visuals and movement

to accompany an orchestral performance it is possible to heighten the emotional

experience for the audience. This builds on Eisenstein’s concept of montage

(Cook 1990 p. 50), where different media can relate to one another through

shared emotional qualities.

The concept of an ‘optimal experience’ or ‘flow’ as described by

Csikszentmihalyi is described as an occasion when we feel a sense of

exhilaration and deep sense of enjoyment that stays in our memories and it is

believed that we need to focus and concentrate on the activity that we are doing

for this experience to result (Csikszentmihalyi 1990). An example of this

phenomenon is demonstrated by the band U2. A 2005 Brisbane Courier Mail

interview with The Edge, one of the members of leading world rock band U2,



gives an insight into this moment of flow or optimal experience: he says ‘the

band and the audience reach that spine-tingling, mind-blowing point of rapture’.

This experience is something that an audience member will carry with them a

long time after the concert is finished and it will leave them wanting to return for

more. This experience can also be achieved in a classical orchestra but one of

the aspects that helps reach this state, is the interaction between performers and

audience. U2 state that ‘we invest a lot of ourselves in the performance and that

carries through and has a strength that people pick up on’. The importance of

performer/audience interaction is shown to be important in this example and the

effect of this collective influence on the individual’s enjoyment level.

2.4.4 Musical learning

Lampel et al state that ‘consumers need familiarity to understand what they are

offered, but they need novelty to enjoy it’ (Lampel, Lant and Shamsie 2000).

The novelty can be addressed by programming of new works and different

modes of presentation but the familiarity element must come from some form of

education or musical learning. This point is supported by Kolb (2000), who

believes that the importance of music education and the support for it from

family and society is evident as key elements for success. The lack of research

and development in the area of musical learning in childhood has been an issue

in Australia (Improving the Condition of School Music Education Across

Australia 2005). This has resulted in a gap in understanding and appreciation of

classical music in a society where childhood music programs are under-valued.

Kolb also shows that family influence is very strong in the development of music

appreciation. Organisations that realise that building audiences from a young

age is crucial to success are rewarded by growing audience numbers, as shown

by The Queensland’s Orchestra (TQO) success with its education program.

The importance of having some previous exposure to classical music for

heightening the enjoyment and connection to a classical music performance, is

mentioned by a number of authors. Gombrich in his book Art and Illusion writes

that ‘people have a conscious/unconscious framework of interpretation,



conventions, beliefs that are specific to a given culture’ (Cook 1990 p. 103).

Classical orchestral music has its foundations in the beliefs and conventions of

17th century Europe and understanding these traditions can help modern

audiences be more aware of the structure and message of the musical works and

therefore allow them to develop a stronger understanding and connection with

them. However as Cook (1990 p. 174) points out, an increased knowledge about

music does not automatically lead to an enhanced enjoyment and sometimes

listeners with less expertise can be more open in their approach. However,

encouraging audience participation in the process of understanding music can

also lead to shared ownership and assist with building audience loyalty.

There are numerous examples of modern orchestral groups investing in

education to develop audiences for the future. The New York Philharmonic

educational program is aimed at children as well as adults and includes a Young

Subscribers Club for 18 – 29 yr olds, seminars related to the season’s program

and private meetings with the maestro and musicians. TQO has a strong schools

education program which has related music to other aspects of learning such as

literature and science and allows students to watch an ‘open rehearsal’ (The

Queensland Orchestra Brochure, 2006). Arts in Motion has an education

program which helps ‘underserved students explore the connection between

contemporary and classical music traditions and make their own musical

compositions with the latest software’ (Arts in Motion 2007). The Stuttgart State

Opera (Tremblay 2004), and Musica Viva Australia (Lebrecht 1996), which

brings music to a quarter of a million school children a year, are among other

numerous companies investing in this essential part of the musical journey, as

they realise the benefits it brings. The Los Angeles Philharmonic's Composer in

the Classroom program to help children create their own music and Baltimore

Symphony's series of casual concerts, featuring talks, interviews, and skits both

open orchestral music up to a wider and younger audience and demonstrate the

success that educational programs can have in attracting and fostering new

audiences (Campbell 1996).



2.5 Artistic Aspects of the Orchestral Product

2.5.1 Poly-stylistic music genres /Blends of instruments and sounds

The fusion of different musical genres has gained an increasing mainstream

focus over the last decade, as shown by numerous examples of integration such

as Bollywood influenced Indian instruments and styles or the use of hip-hop

rhythmic bases with traditional Western repertoire. The growing popularity of

World Music festivals such as WOMAD shows that the integration of multi-

cultural music is exciting and relevant to 21st century society. These elements

are becoming more mainstream in popular music as it reflects the nature of our

more multi-cultural global society. Compositions and performances of music

which are scored for a diverse range of instruments, are the new approach to

catering for multi-cultural and novelty hungry audiences.

At the 2005 Melbourne Arts Festival , the Philip Glass Ensemble together with a

variety of world musicians playing instruments such as the sitar, Gambian

nyanyer, Chinese pipa and didgeridoo, performed the work Orion, ‘a

collaborative concert work’ (Philip Glass's Orion 2005) which has received

world-wide acclaim. Similarly Fabrica’s Credo performances in Brisbane and

Paris produced a global integration of musical styles and sounds with live

musicians playing different cultural music genres, synchronised to video images

which were then accompanied by a traditional symphony orchestra.

The Adelaide Symphony Orchestra (ASO) has successfully developed a new

performance called The Edge, which has around 40 musicians playing a more

contemporary pop style program. The ASO players using microphones are

joined by vocalists and a band and play a program which includes music by

Radiohead and Coldplay. The performance is held in a club-style venue and has

been a sell-out in 2006, attracting a largely younger audience (The Strad

Newspaper Pleasers: ASO and Tonhalle 2007).

The Vancouver Symphony Orchestra (VCO) has explored pop crossovers,

teaming up with Jann Arden and Spirit of the West. VCO has also accompanied



iconic American pop composer Burt Bacharach on hits such as What the World

Needs Now Is Love. Orchestra X repertoire includes a mix of old with new and

classical with popular such as using the Verve's Bitter Sweet Symphony as an

encore.

The Australian Chamber Orchestra’s (ACO) 2006 The Travellers concerts

presented a program that blended the sounds of the Egyptian oud and percussion

with the chamber orchestra. Due to the nature of the Maqam based music, an

element of improvisation was part of the performance and the ACO mirrored the

Arabic style in a counterpoint to the oud. The innovation and beauty of this

program was popular with the broader audience demographic that attend the

ACO performances (personal observation).

In 2005, the Singapore Chinese Orchestra commissioned its first work, Melody

Waves by a Western composer, Michael Nyman. This work is scored for 70

traditional Chinese instruments ranging from the erhu (a python skin and

rosewood fiddle) to a sheng — an extraordinary cross between a bassoon and a

pipe organ which gives the orchestra its tuning, along with traditional Western

instruments (Brown 2005).

As part of the Barbican Connect series, the Icelandic 4 piece band sigur ros

composed and performed a piece with the London Sinfonietta and choir. The

music blended the sounds of guitars, drum kits, electronics and a stone marimba,

an instrument built from 54 natural stones (www.sigur-ros.co.uk Sigur Ros

Reviews 2005).

The concerto for turn-table and the redbullartsechro is another innovative

example of mixed use of instruments. The orchestra was the concept of the

company Red Bull, and has successfully aimed at attracting a younger, more hip

audience by integrating a modern influence into the orchestral performance.

Their concerts in 2005 at Carnegie Hall had the soloist DJ Radar and the

turntable as the feature instrument, bringing a hip-hop influence to the music

(Sandow 2005). The Glyndebourne Opera has also taken inspiration from the

world of hip-hop with a 2006 production of Cosi Fan Tutte School4Lovers,

http://www.sigur-ros.co.uk



featuring undisclosed amounts of rap-Mozart, in an effort to bring the twenty-

something audiences in and create a relevance to current musical trends while

still producing high-art (Sandow 2005).

2.5.2 Inter-sensory perception

To consider another aspect that can contribute to a greater level of audience

connectivity with a music performance, it is important to look at the increasing

use of other art forms such as visual and dance which are used in conjunction

with the music. In the artistic roots of some cultures such as Brazil, music and

dance were intrinsically linked and this is still the case with many of the African-

influenced societies. Another example of the linking of the visual with music

was demonstrated by Scriabin’s wish that the audience wear white clothing to

allow the reflection of colours to ‘wash them in the emotions of sound’ with the

1915 performance of Promotheus: A Poem of Fire (Winzenried 2006). The

Philadelphia Orchestra also used integration of colours and sounds in

performances in 1926.

Cook talks about kinesthetic and visual representations of music reinforcing the

audible and believes they can help in imagining the overall structure of the music

(Cook 1990 p. 103). He describes a phenomenon where the music acquires

specific meaning by virtue of its alignment and interaction with words and

pictures. This phenomenon can be taken to the extreme with the concept of

synaesthesia, described as ‘input in one sensory mode to excite an involuntary

response in another’. Eisenstein in Cook (1990 p. 57) speaks about a hidden

inner synchronisation of the music and the visuals. Music that shares patterns

with visual information may contribute to greater attention and consciousness is

also a concept discussed in Juslin and Sloboda (2004 p. 259). This concept is

developed further by Williams (2003) in his analysis of music video. Here he

describes music video’s ability to create a certain mood for the viewer and to be

representative of a defined cultural style. The visuals and music are not separate

things but ‘entwined in the act of expression’ (Williams 2003 p. 138).



While modern orchestras are searching for new ways to engage audiences, a few

have started to use this phenomenon to draw in a different audience

demographic. Musician/critic David Lasserman asked in the Guardian

newspaper: ‘Is our culture too visual now to support the traditional orchestral

concert performance mode?’ (Lasserman 2002). The visual component is very

important to the 21st century audience and a number of musical performances

have started to recognise this very successfully. Jack McAuliffe, Chief

Operating Officer of the American Symphony Orchestra League believes that

visual components in an orchestral concert are ‘helping the culturally aware non-

attender with a point of entry’ (Stearns 2004). The MTV generation audiences

are used to seeing their music accompanied by images and the integration of

video within a performance adds to the experience (Williams 2003). Can 21st

century orchestras incorporate some style of VJ-ing that is a multimedia

performance with music and video played live by a video jockey, in the same

way that a DJ plays music? There are some adventurous examples by a number

of orchestras proving popular with audiences.

Kronos Quartet’s Visual Music series with performances was described by The

Times Newspaper (Visual Music: Press Quotes 2005) as ‘something new and

entrancing’ and incorporated video, lighting, pre-recorded sound and musical

‘sculpture’. The Australian Chamber Orchestra’s Luminous performances,

Orchestra X’s multi-media performances and Fabrica’s Credo production have

also shown some possibilities for visual integration with music. Arts in Motion

have taken the visual music to a new level by creating a synaesthetic 3D score

visualisation technique, capturing the real-time synchronisation with live

performance and are receiving a great audience response. The Philadelphia

Orchestra’s pre-recorded Symphonie Fantastique with accompanying underwater

images has sell-out audiences (Stearns 2004). Vancouver Symphony and the

New York Philharmonic have also used live large screen images of the

musicians projected to the audiences (Pogrebin 2004).

While a multi-media performance may improve the experience for many

audience members, it was mentioned by many of the orchestral audience studies



that visual music is more popular with new subscribers rather than the traditional

audience and so this needs to be considered when programming. The Dallas

Symphony conducted research that showed its use of visuals was liked by 70%

of its audience but the rest found it distracting (Stearns 2004).

Concerts can be enhanced by the use of sophisticated lighting techniques, a good

example of which is demonstrated by the Trans-Siberian Orchestra (Trans

Siberian Orchestra 2005), who successfully combine multi-media light shows

with a variety of program repertoire. The ability to assist the change in mood of

the music with different coloured lighting, emulates the successful use of this

technique in the rock music world. On the Chinese National Orchestra’s tour of

Australia in 2006, their concerts featured a strong visual element with the use of

lights to create an almost rock concert style atmosphere.

It is not only visuals that can enhance the experience of an orchestral concert or

performance, but movement or dance. Cook (1998 p. 78) describes the concept

that music embodies movement and this allows for a natural integration of music

and movement within a performance. A 2005 production of Grand by Sydney

Dance Company illustrated this mixing of art forms with a pianist and dance

choreography. The Lincoln Centre in New York has invested large amounts in

its New Visions series which promotes cross-over of art forms as has the

Barbican centre in London with its Connect series. Queensland Orchestra’s

2005 Clocktower Series used tango dancing with a Spanish repertoire program

very effectively to demonstrate the concept of inter-sensory perception.

In reviewing aspects of different sensory perceptions, orchestral concerts which

simply use a juxtaposition of different styles of music can also be considered.

Juxtaposition of widely divergent musical styles is nothing new but in recent

years have become very popular, with examples of Yo-Yo Ma's Silk Road

Project or Concerto Köln's recording Dream of the Orient (Oestrich 2004). The

Lincoln Centre’s 2004 Mostly Mozart Festival included a first half program by a

Persian-Indian instrumental ensemble, Ghaza, followed by Mozart’s Requiem in



the second half. As Oestrich points out ‘the results can be illuminating when the

styles truly speak to each other’.

2.6 Economic Aspects and Distribution Strategies

2.6.1 Networking/Business Partnerships

Darso talks about a new wave of arts and business partnerships that rely on

complementary relationships, with both companies using a similar marketing

message that reflects their values and market positioning. Rather than a purely

financial relationship, both arts and business can learn from each and build the

‘creative economy’ of the future (Darso 2003). One successful partnership is

shown in the company Red Bull’s support of the new orchestra

‘redbullartsechro’. This is not a philanthropic relationship but a profit making

venture, where the vision is to create something innovative and modern as

described with their project of concerto for turn table with a DJ as the soloist.

Another good example of reciprocity is the Lahti Symphony Orchestra in

Finland (Ropo and Sauer 2003), where leadership tasks such as visioning,

networking, resource acquisition and change management were shared among

orchestra members and its partners.

Another aspect of good business partnerships demonstrated by some

organisations is the important reliance on audience, community and

entertainment industry support, to leverage promotional opportunities.

Tafelmusik’s success shows the benefits of developing support within the local

market and loyalty within this audience base (Gainer 1999). The educational

benefits of this strategy are also evident. Gainer makes the point, as do many

authors, that in most countries, government funding and subsidies for the arts

have been dramatically cut over the last years and the reliance on the commercial

model is essential to the future survival of this industry. Many successful

orchestras realise the importance of connecting with the activities of their local

communities and building a loyal audience base. Joint promotional strategies for

community events open up the orchestra to another market that may not be

targeted by traditional marketing strategies. The opera world has also



experienced a problematic elitist image, in a similar way to the orchestral world.

A good example of overcoming this image is shown by the Stuttgart State Opera

who have tried to undertake more ‘collaborative projects with artists in other

disciplines’ (Tremblay 2004 p. 64), thus allowing the Opera to increase its reach

beyond the traditional audience base. This is a strategy that has worked well for

the Opera. The English Chamber Orchestra relies more on private support than

public subsidy and has developed a successful model of corporate sponsorship,

fundraising galas and individual donations, which emphasise the strong ties with

the local community (Chong and Trappey 2001).

The Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie, a chamber orchestra in Bremen, Germany

works with local composers, music educators, and students on a variety of

projects within the local school system (Campbell 1995). Also in Germany, The

Berliner Symphoniker has become a successful model for a completely privately

funded orchestra, in a reaction against the huge reduction in government

subsidies. The Saint Louis Symphony’s Community Imperative involves a

merger with the local Community Music School and building a bridge to the

African-American community through area churches, which is another example

of how networking can assist an orchestra (Campbell 1996). The Australian

Chamber Orchestra relies on a strong network of sponsorship and fundraising to

ensure 87% of its budget is met by these methods and box office receipts (ACO

Posts Strong Surplus 2005).

The network provided by the entertainment/music industry can also be leveraged

to great advantage. The trend towards ‘plug and play’ or virtual organisations

(Bryne and Brandt 1992) within the Creative Industries enables companies to

exploit fast-changing market opportunities and share costs and skills. The

orchestral company should not try to exist in isolation but instead take advantage

of networks for developing repertoire, finding performers, event management,

distribution, marketing and production material.



2.6.2 Strong branding and marketing

Without a strong branding and identity the modern orchestra or music

performance will not be successful and this is supported by numerous examples

from the research. In the technological age, electronic marketing is becoming

increasingly important and a sophisticated website is an essential component of

the marketing strategy.

One of the important revelations for classical arts marketing is the importance of

leveraging social networks when targeting consumers as shown by the survey

conducted by Saatchi & Saatchi and Costantoura (2001). Attending a concert is

a social occasion for many audience members. There is a general increasing

decline in the traditional subscriber base and modern audiences tend to be less

loyal, so focusing on the single ticket buyers and analysis for segmented

marketing and niche programming are all important themes. Rentschler

describes the example of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. To try and attract

the 18 – 35 yr old audience, the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra launched its

Classic Attitude product (Rentschler 2002 p. 56), which was a combination of

music events, social outings and information. The popularity of the social events

also attracted new sponsors for the orchestra and the way the program was

marketed focused on relationship marketing and emphasised the experience of

seeing the orchestra live. After two years, the program successfully attracted

over 600 subscribers.

Arts in Motion have used viral marketing strategies to develop their audience

base. Eric Haeker, the artistic director and Chief Executive Officer

communicated that they are ‘interested in developing promotional strategies that

capture the younger demographics, who are less likely to subscribe and will

require social context before they attend’ (Haeker 2005). Viral marketing is a

way of attracting this younger demographic. Leveraging a corporate business

partner’s marketing strategy can be very beneficial and Arts in Motion have

demonstrated this point well, with their joint promotion with Red Bull for the

concerto for turntable.



Consumers need to identify with the message of the company and marketing

needs to reflect this (Kotler P. and Scheff 1997 p. 25). They make the point that

the ‘essence of art is in its communication with the audience’. By implementing

marketing strategies that balance the artistic decision-making process with

audience needs and preferences, the orchestra is more likely to generate a

positive result. Kotler and Scheff also discuss the factors that influence

consumer behaviour and the implications for arts marketing. Macro-

environmental trends, cultural factors, social, psychological and personal factors

all contribute to consumers’ decisions in attending and enjoying an event. For

example, they refer to the Atlanta Symphony’s campaign to attract Generation X

audiences with a series of coffeehouse discussions that aimed to portray classical

music composers’ human side and struggle for identity. Similarly, marketing to

more mature audiences who are more motivated by experience than the actual

product, according to Wolfe (1993), can be focused on experiential marketing

strategies.

Also in today’s global society, a company needs to ensure global exposure so

touring can be an important part of the strategy. The London Symphony

Orchestra (LSO) has found that by incorporating a large touring component in

their total number of concerts each year, this exposure to a wider audience has

increased revenues. The LSO is very well received in Germany and the U.S.

(Garbolinski 2006).

Vancouver Symphony’s Tovey comments that ‘you can simultaneously

challenge your audience by programming great works and expand your base

with savvy PR’ (MacDonald 2006) and this is borne out by the fact that their

average ticket buyer is a half decade younger than five years ago. LSO’s

Garbolinski states that it ‘is important to program a not too avant-garde mix and

keep prices competitive’.

A remarkably articulate and charismatic figure, Orchestra X’s Axelrod has

helped to develop the organisation’s brand, one that has adventurous programs

staged in non-traditional venues (Bambarger and Bradley 2000).



Research conducted by Kolb (2001 pp. 51-58) with the Philharmonia Orchestra

in the U.K. identified that specific targeted marketing for different niche markets

will attract new audiences for classical concerts. Many of the reasons that

audiences want to attend a concert are due to social and family links and so

orchestras should also ‘invest more heavily in family concerts and community

outreach’, Kolb found.

2.6.3 Entrepreneurial Management

Many companies can show the benefits of employing an entrepreneurial

approach to their business as Bhide’s research shows (Bhide 1994) and in the

arts and music field this is demonstrated by being innovative, visionary and

taking some risks with new ventures. New York Philharmonic’s (NYP)

executive director Zarin Mehta has been called ‘an audacious manager’

(Cardinal and Lapierre 2003 pp. 64 - 73). The NYP has successfully built up a

network of private donations and over half of its budget is derived from the box

office; it does not rely on public subsidy. The development of these private

donations has been greatly assisted by the personality and drive of Zarin Mehta.

He has also encouraged the greater use of information technology to attract a

greater number of subscribers. Another factor of his success is his good

communication with the musicians, something he considers to be ‘an essential

part of an executive director’s management of an orchestra’.

An entrepreneurial approach is supportive of the important ability to leverage

networks, by collaborating with the right partners and resources in the

development of new works and in the promotion of these works.

In the 21st century, there is a significant change in the structure of human

resource management. Some companies are taking a more flexible approach to

finding the best artists. Examples researched showed the benefits of a freelance

model for employment, which can have significant financial and other

advantages. The English Chamber Orchestra (ECO) (Chong and Trappey 2001)

and Canada’s Tafelmusik (Gainer 1999) successfully demonstrate this flexibility,

as they do the importance of a leadership, a facilitator and a mentor role within



the company. The ECO recognises the importance of each of the individual

players and each has their ‘unique personality’, something that is encouraged by

the orchestral manager, Ballardie. Ballardie, who is also the artistic director, has

been described as a dynamic and forceful leader and these characteristics have

contributed to the success of the ECO. Another innovative example of orchestral

management is from the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie, which is successfully

self-governing and players make the decisions. This has ‘kept up motivation

amongst players and identification with what they are doing’ (Campbell 1995 p.

15).

The Steve Reich Ensemble is an example of a group that has employed a flexible

working style. As a composer-led ensemble, this has ‘altered the traditional

route by which classical composers disseminate and promote their music’ (Steve

Reich Musicians 2007). The size of the ensemble fluctuates depending on the

works to be performed, and in this way, produces an economically viable model.

Steve Reich’s music, which uses minimalism and has influences from different

cultures such as African rhythms, has been able to overcome the barrier between

high art and popular music and attracts a niche market audience.

2.6.4 Distribution Channels

The extensive U.S. classical music survey already discussed (Brown 2003)

showed that half of the people who most love classical music are not attending

live concerts with any regularity and consumers sustain and enhance their

interest through radio and recordings. Recognising the importance of recordings

and radio play and increasing internet distribution channels are therefore

essential strategies for the modern day orchestra.

The electronic media has become a much greater influence in people’s lives

today and the survey found that increasing ownership of radio and the use of

recordings is ‘strategic to the long-term vitality of the orchestra field’. The

success of Classic FM in the U.K. shows the potential of marketing and making

the music less elitist; there was a revenue increase of 23% over the year 2002

and the station has had success in attracting a younger audience. Classic FM



have tried to create an ‘inclusive culture around classical music’ and allow

audiences to go on an emotional journey with the music, thereby developing

greater connectivity with this style of music as Glover (2002) describes in his

article. The New York Philharmonic utilises both the radio and television media

to reach a greater number of listeners, with great effect. This brings up the

question of why other orchestras don’t consider owning or operating a music

radio station as a way of developing their marketing avenues.

Music accessed via the internet is the largest growing market for the music

industry, as shown by figures from The Recording Industry Association of

America (www.riaa.com, 2007). Websites that provide music downloads for

technology such as iPods are important to the younger generation, but it isn’t

only pop music that has the potential to benefit in this direction. When the BBC

offered free downloads of a piece by Beethoven, it was more popular than

expected (Beethoven is Download Favourite 2005). Many of the successful

orchestras offer their recordings to be available as mp3 downloads via the

internet, as they realise the importance of being part of this growing market and

its influence on the desired younger audience demographic. This growth in the

digital media also opens the door to promote more multi-media offerings to

potential audiences. As iPods now display the visual as well as the aural,

orchestras and classical music may need to follow this trend when considering

their market and promotion strategies for future recordings.

Interesting statistics on classical album sales in the U.S. showed that while sales

of albums were down 15% from 2004 to 2005, the number of digital downloads

of classical music was up 93.9 % during that same year (Tsioulcas 2006 pp. 44-

45). While still not as large an increase on other digital music sales, these

statistics demonstrate that classical music can find new markets and orchestras

wanting to promote their brand should employ the digital arena.

Orchestra X has independently produced its first CD, a live recording of

Prokofiev's Classical Symphony. Retailing for $10, the disc is available at

Houston-area outlets as well as direct from the orchestra. By aiming to capture

http://www.riaa.com



the Generation X audience demographic, the disc was not only manufactured in

a punk-looking X shape but mixed with an upfront, rock-oriented sonic model in

mind. With its merchandise sales, Orchestra X also seems more like a rock band

than an orchestra (Bambarger and Bradley 2000). LSO have also focused on a

number of live recordings, due to the popularity of this mode of recording

(Garbolinski 2006). Signings of CDs after a concert also encourages a stronger

connection with the audience and develops the persona of the orchestral

members with the public.

2.7 Conclusions from Literature

After identifying and analysing the key themes and attributes that are important

to the 21st century audience and therefore critical for orchestral organisations, a

model can be constructed that incorporates these themes and attributes. Based

on an interpretation of the findings, a combination of factors has been used to

construct a framework, designed to assist orchestras to achieve a sustainable

product and business. Given the relative lack of research within the orchestral

marketing field with regard to audience experiences, a new classification and

paradigm for orchestral marketing can be developed. This classification enables

the common themes and attributes to be divided into three broad categories; the

social and personal, the artistic and the economic. Employing a combination of

all these factors will involve some interaction between the different factors, so it

is important to consider the effect of the entire framework. This framework

could then be used by orchestral organisations to increase their level of audience

connectivity and it may contribute to orchestral sustainability.



Table 2: 21st Century Orchestral Sustainability Framework

Social/Personal Artistic

Economic

Performer/audience

interaction

Poly-stylistic music

genres

Networking/business

partnerships

Style of performance Blend of different

instruments and sounds

Strong branding and

marketing

Emotional and

psychological connection

Inter-sensory perception

using visuals and

theatre

Entrepreneurial

management

Musical Learning

Variety of distribution

channels



3 METHODOLOGY

3.1 The Research Project

The methodology was designed to investigate if the combined elements of the

21st Century Orchestral Sustainability Framework contribute to an increased

audience connection with the orchestral performance and to test if this leads to a

model for orchestral sustainability. The research hypothesis is that: Increased

audience connectivity contributes to orchestral sustainability.

While each framework factor is considered independently in the research, it is

assumed that there is interaction and dependencies between the different factors.

Further research may investigate the importance of these interactions and

whether some factors are more important than others.

3.2 The Interpretative Paradigm

As there are many aspects to investigate within the hypothesis, I have chosen to

take a mixed paradigm view for interpretation of the research.

At this point, I should describe my background and how I believe this will bring

a particular perspective on the research. I have been involved with music from

an early age, primarily learning in the Western classical tradition. A pianist,

violinist and singer, I have experienced the enjoyment of playing in an orchestra

as well as in choirs, chamber groups and also as a soloist. In addition, I have

travelled widely and have seen how different cultures relate to and express

themselves through music. I have had direct experience of the barriers

constructed by participants in the classical music world and I believe that this

music was composed to be enjoyed and experienced by the general public, as

referred to by the term ‘musicking’ (Small 1998). The orchestral art form has

the potential to be discovered by a wider range of people, if these barriers can be

dismantled.



These personal and social factors have fused together to create a desire within

me to research and investigate ways for the orchestral art form to be opened up

to a wider audience and to give this new audience the opportunity to participate

in what can be great emotional experiences.

This background ontology is relevant as it will influence the qualitative research

approach I have taken. The research is framed in an ideology where a great

musical performance can be a transcendental experience; where the individual

and the collective audience members connect with the music and have the ability

to express themselves and their beliefs through the music. For this to occur, the

music performance must incorporate elements that are relevant for the personal,

social, artistic and cultural backgrounds of the 21st century audience.

An analysis of other existing orchestras and other forms of music performance

has helped build the factors in the Orchestral Sustainability Framework, and

therefore there is a strong constructivist paradigm to the research. As discussed

in the literature review, there is still little research on audience experiential

factors within orchestral performances. This has enabled this particular research

study to construct the framework of factors in a new environment and applying

new approaches, that is using a participatory constructivism from the audiences’

perspective. Patterns have been observed that lead to successful orchestral

performances and these have been used to form the main factors of the

framework. In taking this approach, the research draws on Schwandt’s concept

of ‘inventing concepts, models and schemes to make sense of experience’

(Schwandt 1994 p. 197). As the various factors in the framework are dependent

upon the context that they are observed, different geographies and cultural

influences, the construction of the framework is contingent and contextual

(Denzin and Lincoln 2000). The investigation of the elements of emotional and

psychological audience connectivity is dependent upon the way these elements

are measured and consequently there is some subjectivity to the analysis.

In considering how the research will fit within the various interpretative

paradigms, it is important to emphasise the relevance of data interpretation to the



research findings. Charmaz (2000 pp. 523-524) expresses it as: ‘Data do not

provide a window on reality. Rather the discovered reality arises from the

interactive process and it temporal, cultural and structural contexts. Researchers

and subjects frame that interaction and confer meaning upon it.’ This is true of

the research approach being taken, as the data from the various existing

orchestras and the prototype Deep Blue Orchestra are dependent upon the

cultural environment in which they perform, the audience demographics and

time and place; all of these aspects are continuously changing and so the

orchestral sustainability factors are relevant as long as these temporal, cultural

and structural contexts exist. In this way, the Orchestral Sustainability

Framework must be constantly re-interpreted to ensure it is relevant for a

dynamically changing 21st century society. Part of the research process will be

to continually reassess and refine concepts as investigations are conducted and

new data is obtained.

While there is an interpretive perspective for the research, there is also a part that

is more quantitative in nature. The audience survey data and box office

information have been used to show the impact of the orchestral sustainability

factors and their contribution to increasing profitability for the organisation.

Here a more objectivist methodology was employed by analysing the data to

determine the effect of the various orchestral sustainability factors. The

audience responses were measured in some questions using a Likert Scale

enabling the importance of the factors could be compared. Analysis of the

selected case study concert performances was undertaken, to determine the

percentage of the audience that liked the demonstration of the factors. For

example, questions were asked to the audience to assess their enjoyment of the

visual components of the performance. A high positive response on a factor

could then be interpreted to contribute to audience connectivity.

There is also an element of a cultural studies paradigm, since there is certainly a

dependency on different social fabrics and economic structures affecting the

audiences’ decision making preferences. The way different cultures experience

music and their music educational backgrounds have a large influence on



audiences’ appetite for certain styles of music performances. One of the factors

being investigated, the growth of poly-stylistic genres in music, also

demonstrates how the 21st century multi-cultural society is influencing the

musical repertoire. The importance of distribution channels for music through

the e-media has also opened up a much wider audience. The research

investigates if this means a more homogeneous style of performance is

demanded due to the effects of this globalization or if in fact, that niche markets

are more easily promoted and provided for.

As there are many perspectives and many different ways of looking at the data

within this study, the term bricolage can be used to reflect the approach. A

bricolage is ‘a construction that changes and takes new forms as different tools,

methods and techniques of representation and interpretation are added to the

puzzle’ (Weinstein and Weinstein 1991 p. 161). Using the bricolage concept, the

research study has gathered data from different perspectives to see the bigger

picture, rather than analysing the audience data in isolation. It was anticipated

that the Orchestral Sustainability Framework will be an evolving construct, with

its factors changing as the social, artistic and economic environments themselves

change over time.

It is also important to discuss the concept of crystallisation in relation to the

research study. As Richardson (1994 p. 522) describes, this process allows the

researcher to take a multi-dimensional approach to investigation and to see

through the ‘many facets’ that can influence the study. In this research, looking

at historical, sociological, psychological, economic and musical aspects will

acknowledge the influence from many diverse areas on the orchestral art form.



3.3 The Research Strategy

The methodology has followed primarily a qualitative methodology to interpret

and understand how the audiences connect with the music performance

experience in the context of orchestral performances. I have drawn on a variety

of empirical devices to conduct the research and these are:

• Case studies

• Action Research

• Interviews

• Participant observation

The case study has been chosen as the primary method of research, because in

this way patterns that have been identified as contributing to 21st century

orchestral success can be investigated more deeply and in the context of a

current and practical situation. Stake (2000 p. 448) expresses the use of case

studies as being of ‘value for refining theory and suggesting complexities for

further investigation, as well as helping to establish the limits of

generalisability’. The patterns identified in the literature review can be refined

through the particular case studies chosen and also it can be determined if the

factors can be applied in general, or if they are specific to a certain situation.

The diversity of data that results from a case study has helped to provide a

thorough understanding of the importance of the various Orchestral

Sustainability Framework factors and how a particular factor contributes to the

overall success of the organisation. Following the concept of crystallisation, the

opportunity that a case study provides to view the data in a multi-faceted way,

can bring a deeper understanding of the interaction of all the data. This has been

relevant to understand the interaction of the framework factors in each case

study.



In the case studies, data was gathered from face-to-face in-depth interviews,

audience focus groups and surveys, literature analysis and performance

observations. For the interviews, which included the Chief Executive Officer

(CEO) or the Artistic Director of the chosen case study orchestra, questions were

asked relating to the social and personal, artistic and economic elements, as

described in the Orchestral Sustainability Framework. It is natural that some

bias will exist from the interviewees when discussing their organisations, so the

audience data is important to complement the internal data. For the audience

focus groups and surveys, these were implemented for a few chosen

performances, where the context reflected the integration of the framework

factors. One of these examples was TQO staging of its Sci-Fi extravaganza in

August 2006, which brought together visuals, new repertoire, theatrical elements

and promotion to a wider audience demographic. The choice of the participants

in the focus groups represents different demographics such as non-arts attendees,

traditional classical symphony attendees and a broad range of age groups. Focus

group discussions enable researchers to tie together clusters of behaviour that

relate to a given consumer decision or action (Debus 1996). Also, group

interaction can stimulate richer responses and new ideas can be generated from

this type of research. It is important not to just look at the box office attendance

figures but the aspects that encouraged the audience to attend the performance.

These post performance focus groups have not been widely used in Australia but

the method of audience reception studies as discussed in Sauter (1986) is

growing in popularity. The audience surveys have provided an element of

quantitative data and this has supported the qualitative responses. In the surveys,

a Likert scale was used to measure the audience engagement and connectivity

with some of the Orchestral Framework factors. I have generalised some of the

assumptions from the research found in one case study where possible. From

these generalisations, the relevance of the Orchestral Sustainability Framework

factors is assessed, in the context of the research hypothesis.

This research has also contributed to an Australia Research Council (ARC)

funded project. The partners contributing to the project are QUT, TQO, Creative



Media Warehouse and The Brisbane Festival. As the research assistant on the

project, one of the advantages was that I could contribute to the development of

a prototype orchestral model and use it to test the factors in my Orchestral

Sustainability Framework. This prototype is the Deep Blue Orchestra, which

‘explores orchestral futures, marrying the traditional string section of the

orchestra with the 5th section digital and electronics and it combines with a DJ

and VJ with cameras, screens and lighting’ (Brisbane Festival program 2006).

As part of this project, the research and in particular the audience focus groups

and surveys were used to influence the choices of repertoire and presentation

style for the Deep Blue Orchestra. As a participant observer, I was able to be

very involved in all aspects of the research and get a strong understanding of the

Deep Blue Orchestra’s objectives and the other people involved. Participant

observation can involve a ‘range of research methods such as informal

interviews, direct observation, participation in the life of the group, collective

discussions, analyses of personal documents produced within the group, self-

analysis, and life-histories’ (Wikipedia 2007). This involvement provided a

deeper understanding of the Deep Blue Orchestra performances.

The selection of the case studies is integral to the research and here Stake (2000

p. 435 - 449) is referred to for a distinction between an intrinsic and an

instrumental case study. He defines a case study as being intrinsic if ‘the

researcher wants to gain a better understanding of the particular case’. This case

does not necessarily represent other orchestras but because of its uniqueness is

interesting to research. The Deep Blue Orchestra case study has this role in the

research. Stake also defines an instrumental case study, which ‘is examined

mainly to provide insight into an issue or to redraw a generalisation’. The

particular case studies have been chosen for the study because each of them

appears to display characteristics of at least some of the framework factors and

so should be representative of other orchestral groups demonstrating the same

characteristics. As the Deep Blue Orchestra was evolving over the research

period, it was possible to assess the impact of all the elements in the framework

with this orchestra and then generalise to other orchestras, where appropriate.



The Queensland Orchestra, being an established orchestra with a more defined

product and audience development strategies, was able to provide a different

perspective for the research study. Not all the framework factors were

observable in TQO case study and this brings out an important point about the

relationship between both case studies. Some of the framework factors could be

tested with the Deep Blue Orchestra and then TQO could determine the

suitability of these elements for its own product. However when there are

atypical features in a case study as Stake points out, it is not necessary to

generalise all the aspects of a particular situation. For example, the Deep Blue

Orchestra was used as part of the ARC research project and so many of the

initial artistic and development decisions may change over time, as the needs of

a commercial product outweigh the research objectives. Another aspect to

consider in the case selection is the opportunity to gain access to information,

which again refers to one of Stake’s criteria for selection. For this reason, TQO

is an important case, as due to proximity and partnership in the project, they can

provide access to depth of data gathered over a long period of time. This last

point refers to the importance of longitudinal research which allows for

establishing patterns of change over a period of time (Menard 1991). It also

highlights the advantage of using this case, where access to information not

available to an outsider can assist with the research analysis. Due to the time

frame over which the research has been conducted, it hasn’t been possible to

consider a longitudinal approach. This provides the opportunity to do further

research in the future that would consider the change in audience connectivity

before and after an orchestral framework factor was implemented.

One disadvantage of the case study approach can be observer bias and the fact

that the researcher must decide on the actual questions to ask. Part of this is

deciding on what data is relevant to investigate the particular research questions.

For this study, it must be acknowledged that the Orchestral Sustainability

Framework factors bring a certain focus to the analysis of the data. Therefore

some other aspects that influence the sustainability may not be investigated here.

While an in-depth negative case analysis may not be part of this thesis, the



Literature Review has drawn on some negative case examples to show situations

where the opposite effect occurs e.g. when audience connectivity is reduced.

The research study employed some elements of an Action Research approach

within the Deep Blue Orchestra case. Action Research can be described as a

‘spiral of self-reflective cycles’ which involves planning a change, implementing

this change, reflecting on the change and then re-planning etc (Kemmis and

McTaggart 2000 p. 595). The development of a prototype orchestra offers the

opportunity to test some of the Orchestral Sustainability Framework factors and

then refine them, depending on the reaction of the audiences. Action Research is

‘best undertaken collaboratively’, which allows for a ‘social process of learning’

as described by Kemmis and McTaggart. As there are a number of partners

involved with the Deep Blue Orchestra development, each can contribute, based

on their respective skills and knowledge. These contributions include input from

freelance musicians about performance styles, marketing strategies and branding

from Creative Media Warehouse, repertoire development and overall production

from QUT and audience reactions from the market research studies, which

should all be integrated to shape the evolution of this new orchestra. Using an

Action Research approach, which demonstrates the changing ways interaction

occurs within a musical organisation, perhaps could then be used as a model for

orchestral development itself, to help break-away from the hierarchical

operations of a traditional symphony orchestra.

In addition to the case studies and Action Research, some performance

observation experiences have been included in the analysis. Some examples of

these performances are:

• TQO Clocktower Series, which often demonstrates use of inter-sensory

perception with a combination of music and theatre

• The Chinese National Orchestra, which demonstrates the blend of

instruments and musical styles and performer/audience interaction



• The Australian Chamber Orchestra’s The Travellers concerts, which

demonstrates poly-stylistic repertoire, entrepreneurship and for me,

emotional connectivity

One innovative method employed in the collection of data in the Deep Blue

Orchestra case study was the use of SMS data to determine audience reactions to

the concert performances. Use of an SMS data survey to elicit feedback from a

concert audience is a relatively new concept but the Deep Blue Orchestra

research project aimed to try out new approaches in research methodology as

well as in artistic areas. SMS surveys are increasingly being used in advertising

for research (Balabanis and Mitchell 2007 pp. 369 - 385) but have not been

widely used in the performing arts as yet. Prior to the performance, the audience

were given information on how to SMS their response to the performance. They

were not given any specific questions to respond to but simply asked to SMS any

thoughts, feelings or observations that they had, at anytime during the

performance. When the SMS data was collated and analysed, it was possible to

associate an individual SMS with the time it was received and so comments

could be associated with a particular moment in the performance. This method

of analysing case study data brought a degree of flexibility and allowed for an

immediacy of response. It is important to consider whether the audience was

influenced by responding in this manner. By being asked to reflect on the

performance, it may have given them a different experience of the performance

than it would have done otherwise. The interactivity of the SMS method was

also in keeping with the aim of interactivity with the Deep Blue performance and

so in a way, this research methodology contributed to the theme and style of the

orchestra. It is important to consider some of the weaknesses of the SMS data

method. As SMS responses are usually quite succinct, the limited number of

words means that each word used can be very powerful and full of meaning.

However this also means that a misinterpretation of a particular word can affect

the data analysis and so there is a requirement for precision in interpretation and

therefore the possibility of researcher error. As the demographic for SMS use is

often higher in the younger male age group as Balabanis and Mitchell



discovered, this may bias the data, as the responses will not be coming from the

entire audience. In addition to the SMS data, another innovative method of

collating data was used. Audience members were encouraged to write their

thoughts on the tablecloths, as they sat and listened to the Deep Blue

performance. This also provided a free-form and anonymous way of assessing

people’s reactions to the performance.

In presenting the research findings, the issue of confidentiality needs to be

considered. For all interviews, focus groups and surveys, participants were

asked if they wished to contribute to the study and consent forms were signed.

However, if the results and analysis of the research show that a case-studied

orchestral organisation is not employing the best methods and strategies for

sustainability, this can possibly lead to some tension with the reporting of the

research findings.

Working as part of the ARC project has raised some issues about the different

objectives of the different participating partners in the research. After the Strong

Report and faced with concerns from government about funding requirements to

sustain the TQO, the management of the TQO were interested to understand how

their audience demographics could be extended to reach a wider range of people.

Creative Media Warehouse ultimately had a vision for the Deep Blue Orchestra

to become a successful commercial entity and believed that there were certain

elements required in the orchestra’s style and presentation to attract the targeted

audience demographic. QUT were also interested to see if there was a model

that could sustain orchestral musicians while promoting new technologies and

repertoires. The ARC project certainly did influence the choice of performances

and orchestras used as case studies for the research. However, it is important to

point out that the thesis research has focused on the particular area of interest to

me i.e. what aspects of performances enhance audience connectivity.

In conclusion then, this research study employs various paradigms and strategies

to endeavour to develop a new approach to the 21st century orchestra, with the

goal to contribute to a sustainable and revitalized art form.



4 DATA PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS

4.1 Introduction to the Case Studies

As discussed in the methodology chapter, the research has followed primarily a

qualitative approach and the main vehicle for the analysis has been the case

study of the chosen orchestral organisations. As part of each case study,

interviews with the key artistic and organisational people were conducted,

audience and musicians focus groups and surveys were undertaken and my

personal observations of select performances have also supplemented the

research.

The Deep Blue Orchestra

The formation of the Deep Blue Orchestra was part of an ARC funded project

aimed at developing new and sustainable models appropriate for the 21st century

audience. The project aimed to look at new ways of audience engagement, new

repertoire to include digital and electronic components, new ways of orchestral

performance styles incorporating visual and movement and new ways of

orchestral business structure such as freelancing.

The Deep Blue Orchestra has been described by its creators as

a quest to develop an orchestral form that is sustainable in the 21st

century. It has no permanent players or traditional infrastructure but is a

dynamic community of writers, arrangers, sound visual and spatial

designers, researchers and other creative’s playing to enthusiastic

audiences – a 3D model – conceptual, human and technological that has

seized the initiative to question all parameters and forge a new entity – a

quantum leap for musicians but a logical next step for audience (Deep

Blue 2005).

Robert Davidson, one of the main composers of repertoire for the Brisbane

Festival performances described the project as ‘questioning and challenging the



existing character of an orchestra and throwing the theatrical side into the

foreground’ (Wills 2006).

Some other key concepts about the Deep Blue Orchestra project are described by

the CEO of Creative Media Warehouse, one of the main creators of the

orchestra:

‘It is as much about audience development as it is about artistic development.’

‘The Deep Blue Orchestra is an immersive and orchestral mix of electric and

acoustic textures.’

‘There is a merging of the traditional and the innovative, young and old with the

essential ingredients of emerging technology and contemporary culture.’

‘It is a new artistic business model for orchestras in the 21st century’

The Queensland Orchestra (TQO)

TQO was used for one of the case studies in the research due to a number of

factors such as location, accessibility and it being representative of an Australian

State symphony orchestra. Formed in 2001, from the merger of two previous

existing Queensland orchestras, TQO is still in a phase of formulating the

appropriate strategic approach to become a sustainable entity and meeting its

vision of ‘to touch the hearts and minds of Queenslanders’ (Annual Report

2004). Over the period of research study, TQO saw its box office revenue

increase by 19.9 % and this was helped by a number of initiatives such as:

• Building an interactive presence through new technologies

• Greater community advocacy and engagement through public awareness

and media

• Expanding its program to include a more diverse range of music and

performers such as Jazz meets the Symphony with James Morrison and

Lalo Schifrin



• Expanding the education program such as open rehearsals for schools and

concert audience discussions

• Building partnerships with a greater number of corporate and community

organisations

TQO has different styles of programs targeted to different audiences and for the

case study, I chose to compare the Maestro series, the Clocktower series and

another one-off event, Winners, a production for the 2006 Brisbane Festival.

The Maestro Series is aimed at the more traditional classical audience and

performs the main works of the symphony repertoire, the Clocktower Series is

aimed at a younger and less traditional audience with works including film music

and lighter classics. Winners was a multi-media production involving Japanese

drumming group TaikOz, TQO and Italy’s Fabrica Musica artistic director

Andrea Molino. The event integrated video footage about the effects of death,

war and ethnic conflicts with the orchestra providing an accompaniment to the

images and was one of the showcases of the festival.

Overview of Case Study Questions

The interviews with the CEO or artistic directors of both TQO and the Deep

Blue Orchestra were focused on investigating the concepts of new product, new

audience development strategies and new distribution and business models using

the three main components of the Orchestral Sustainability Framework; the

social, artistic and economic aspects influencing audience connection with the

performance. The questions were framed to gauge the impact of a new idea or

strategy by identifying the before and after situation. The audience surveys and

focus groups added another perspective to enrich the answers to these questions

by gathering some quantitative and qualitative data from the audience

themselves.

A number of key questions were used as the basis for the interviews and also

considered when assessing the survey data, focus group data and in the context

of the performance observations. The purpose of these questions was to



investigate and understand in the case studies the relevance of the research

questions. The questions covered the following areas:

Social

• Do the organisation’s performances aim for interaction between audience

and performers and how? Investigate examples of

o performers speaking to the audience

o improvisation during performance according to audience direction

o level of audience social interaction before, during and after

performance

• Does the organisation aim to connect emotionally and psychologically

with the audience? Investigate aspects such as

o Is a certain mood or imagined concept evoked

o Is there a mix of familiarity and new

o Is there a message, theme, social context for the performance

o How important are key musicians/conductor

o Does the performance result in a transformative experience for

the audience and how

• What are some innovative modes of performance used by the

organisation? Investigate if less formality, venue choices and humour

were a factor in the performances.

Artistic

• Does the choice of performance repertoire include poly-stylistic genres

and a blend of different sounds? What was the effect on the audience due

to these choices?



• Is inter-sensory perception important to the performances (e.g. visuals

and dance together with music) and what is the audience response?

Economic

• What networks/business relationships does the organisation rely upon

and how have these been created? Refer to both non-philanthropic and

philanthropic.

• How should classical music be marketed in the 21st century?

• Analyse successful strategies looking at costs and returns

• Understand target market segments, branding strategy, recordings and

distributions

• What is the management structure of the organisation? Investigate

examples of an entrepreneurial approach

• Analyse the organisation’s financials for the relevant performances

General

• What do the CEO and/or Artistic Director believe are the successful

characteristics for the 21st century orchestra?

• How does the organisation define itself? What makes it unique?

• Who is the target audience? This may be different for different concerts

• What is the background of the organisation and its evolution?



4.2 Data Presentation – The Deep Blue Orchestra

The data for the Deep Blue Orchestra case study comprises the following:

1) Audience survey results from December 2005

2) Audience focus group responses from December 2005

3) Musicians focus group responses from December 2005

4) Audience survey results from July 2006

5) SMS data from July 2006

6) Interviews with key contributors during 2005 and 2006

7) Financial data for July 2006 and projections

4.2.1 Audience Survey Results - December 2005

This performance or showing was the culmination of a week of rehearsals, where

the first staging of the Deep Blue Orchestra initiative was “workshopped”.

During this week, the main objective was filming the production of a

promotional DVD and testing some of the project’s creative ideas musically,

visually, theatrically and process-wise. For this stage, greater emphasis was put

on the visual, rather than the sound production.

An eclectic selection of works was chosen according to criteria such as their

dramatic possibilities, their communicativeness, their practicality for staging and

suitability for the target demographic. The aim was to have the emotional

narrative of the music represented in the whole event. The works for the

audience performance were Elegy composed by Robert Davidson, Raising up

Water and Hong Kong Western composed by Phill Wilson, Chill composed by

Yanto Browning and Mars from The Planets by Holst, arranged by Robert

Davidson. The Deep Blue Orchestra team was comprised of string players and

electronic musicians and was accompanied by visual projections.



In total, about forty people attended the half hour showing of the four works.

The audience consisted of a number of different demographic and psychographic

groups; members of The Queensland Orchestra Guild, Creative Industries

students, traditionally non-classical concert attendees, music teachers and

musicians, friends and families. Although there was a slightly higher ratio of

females to males, compared to a typical classical music audience, the proportion

of male attendees was higher than usual.

This initial survey was designed as a pilot, which was then refined and

implemented on a larger scale with the Brisbane Festival performances. For the

initial survey, twenty-six audience members were involved in responding to the

questions. Nine people were from the 18 – 25 years age group, seven from the

26 – 35 years age group and ten people from the 56 years plus age group.

Occupations ranged from professional (eleven people), students (seven people)

and retired (six people). There were no responders in the 36 – 56 years age

group.

Survey Responses

The full survey and responses are detailed in the Appendix One. Following is a

summary of the responses to the December 2005 survey.

The first two demographic questions showed that nearly all of the responders

liked to hear music in their car and at home predominantly and that their

preferred style of music was classical music but also included a number of other

styles such as funk, blues, folk and electronica.

The next questions about what people liked best and least about the performance

and showed that the highest response was that the musicians/performers were the

best part of the performance, with ten people giving this answer. The least liked

element of the performance was the style of music.

When people were asked to describe the performance, there were some very

enthusiastic responses such as ‘modern, interesting, innovative, experimental,

exciting, and fun’. One responder said that it was ‘an amazing collaboration of



drama, lighting, costume and sound’. Apart from one response, everyone agreed

that they would come again to such a performance; however the greater

proportion of people said that they would not buy a recording of the

performance.

When asked to describe anything they would change about the performance,

many people responded about the style of music and the balance between the

instruments. A few responses referred to the need for a greater musical variety

and less emphasis on the repetitive percussion and bass. It should be noted that

these comments were taken constructively by the Deep Blue Orchestra and

future performances improved on these aspects.

The survey asked people to describe the role of the audience in a musical

performance and gave a variety of options for response. There was a very high

response for the choice ‘emotional listener’, which was also reflected in the next

question, about a musical performance evoking an emotional response.

The survey then asked some questions about style of performance and the

interaction of the audience with the performers. Responses showed that people

agreed or strongly agreed that interaction results in audience enjoyment and the

ambience and behaviour of the audience also contributes.

The last questions were relevant to the way a performance is marketed and

responses showed that the most popular ways to find out about music

performances are either by newspaper or through friends. The importance of the

social aspect of a performance was also highlighted by the response that the most

popular way to attend music performances is with friends.

4.2.2 Audience Focus Group Responses – December 2005

Focus Group Methodology and Questions

In addition to the audience survey, where all audience members were asked to

give their impressions about the event, an informal focus group was planned, so

a greater depth of responses about the event could be elicited. Focus group



research uses a qualitative approach, which allows for a greater understanding

than can be acquired through quantitative techniques alone. Focus group

discussions enable the researchers to tie together clusters of behaviour that relate

to a given consumer decision or action. Also, group interaction can stimulate

richer responses and new ideas can be generated from this type of research

(Debus 1996 p. 3).

As this was the first showing of the Deep Blue Orchestra concept to an audience,

it was very important that the creative and commercial team understood the

audience reaction. The responses from both the survey and focus groups

research could then contribute to the next phase of development and iteration in

the Deep Blue Orchestra project. Although this first focus group discussion was

quite short, being about 20 minutes in duration, the future focus group

discussions would be longer with a greater variety of questions.

Due to the time constraint, only a few questions were asked. These questions

were:

• What style of music do you normally prefer?

• What was your response to this performance?

• Would you come again to a performance like this?

The eight participants in the focus group were taken from the different audience

group members, as mentioned previously. There were two males and six

females. The two males were both musicians and in the age range 20 – 35 years.

Two of the females were mothers of Deep Blue Orchestra string musicians. Two

females were members of the Queensland Orchestra Guild and ranged in age

between 40 – 60 years. Another female was an ex-concert pianist and another

female was in the age range 20 – 35 years and was not a traditional classical

concert attendee.

As the focus group was conducted after the performance and in the same venue,

there was considerable noise from the other audience members and the Deep



Blue Orchestra team. The researchers learned from this experience and the

future focus groups would be arranged to provide a more private setting with less

outside influences.

Analysis of responses

All of the participants in the group said that they had quite a broad taste in

preferred style of music. One of the respondents said he had an ‘eclectic’ taste,

while one of the females mentioned that she did not like heavy metal music and

another that she did not like strong jazz and country music. Another said he

liked jazz and folk, as well as classical.

One participant said that he found the performance ‘intriguing’ and that there

was ‘a lot of energy’ in it. He liked the idea of not performing with the score

and the physical staging aspect.

Another participant was less enthusiastic, as he had heard this style of music

before and it was not new. He commented on other orchestral music that

incorporates an overlay of electronic instruments and uses rhythmic beats

influenced by rock, Latin or jungle style music. He wanted to hear new music,

written specifically for this group and not arrangements of existing works, such

as the Holst piece.

One of the participants said that she had ‘enjoyed’ the performance because there

was ‘interaction’ between the performers and the audience and there were no

barriers such as music stands or a conductor, so you could see everyone.

Another participant said that that the music was ‘really good, contemporary and

interesting’. She also had heard similar music, referring to ‘dance music’, but

only on radio and not live. She liked the experience of seeing it live and the

‘physical movement’ by the performers.

One of the participants said she knew the Holst work very well but to hear it with

the integration of electronic elements and rhythmic beats brought ‘an energy, an



excitement’ to it. She also commented on the lack of barriers in this

performance and the enthusiasm from the performers.

There was a comment that ‘I loved the way the music engaged you’. This

participant felt it was more of an ‘all around performance’, referring to all of the

elements which combined to make up the whole experience.

One participant however was more hesitant. She said that it was ‘interesting’

and liked the music but questioned how it could be extended for a larger

orchestral group. She felt that the visuals detracted from the music.

Another of the participants said that she often found traditional orchestral

concerts ‘boring’ and there was a need to be more challenged. She felt that life

and music were changing and so this should also be represented in the orchestral

music realm. She described the musicians as ‘almost being in a trance’, and she

was very engaged by this fact. She was not convinced about the absence of a

conductor. She felt that the conductor ‘joins everyone together’ and is not

distracting to the experience. She wanted to see more variety in the works

performed.

There was a very emphatic yes from most of the participants when asked if they

had a desire to come again to such a performance. Some qualifications to this

response were that original compositions were important, the idea of audience

communication could be developed further, other instruments could be included

and that it should be promoted as a large ensemble, not an orchestra.

Conclusions

Many of the group commented on the amount of energy generated by the

performance and how there was an animation from the musicians. This

interaction between the musicians and the audience was one of the elements

being tested in the Deep Blue Orchestra model, so it was important to see this

aspect picked up by the audience.



The physical staging of the performance and the more informal approach of

presentation was another theme in the Deep Blue Orchestra approach that

brought positive comments from the audience and contributed to their

appreciation of the event.

There was a mixed response from the focus group to the style of works

performed. While some people commented that the integration of electronic

elements with acoustic instruments added to the enjoyment of the music, others

wanted to see more variety and something newer in style. This reflected some

similar comments from the audience survey data.

The positive response from the focus group about returning to see future

performances provided the Deep Blue Orchestra team with a strong basis from

which to further develop the 21st century orchestra model.

4.2.3 Musicians Focus Group Responses – December 2005

The Deep Blue Orchestra team was comprised of string players and electronic

musicians and was accompanied by visual projections. The musicians had not

played together before and had only been given the music a few days prior. One

of the selection criteria for the musicians was their ability to experiment with

different musical styles and be willing to engage in the physical performance of

the works.

Eight of the musicians from the December Deep Blue Orchestra participated in

this focus group. They included string players, percussion, electronic musicians

and composers.

As this was the first time the Deep Blue Orchestra concept was put into practice,

it was very important that the creative and commercial team understood the

musicians’ response to their involvement in the process and their reaction to the

Deep Blue Orchestra concept. One of the aims of the Deep Blue Orchestra

model is to make the ‘musicking’ (using Small’s terminology) process less

hierarchical and so contributions from the musicians and their feedback were

important to the overall development of the model.



The specific questions asked of the group were:

• Where does the audience “fit” in the musicians’ view of a performance?

Musicians could refer to both the Deep Blue Orchestra and their other

performance experience.

• Describe the role of the classical musician working with digital,

electronic effects. How is it different?

• What did you like best about this Deep Blue Orchestra experience? What

did you like least?

• What will be the kind of orchestra that will sustain audiences of the

future?

• What is the role of the audience in a musical performance?

Analysis of responses

All the musicians believed in some way in the importance of audience/performer

interaction. One participant said that ‘everyone who chooses to be a performer

must consider the audience. Being a performer is about sharing what you are

doing and thinking musically’. Performances are about entertaining the audience

the musicians felt, and they liked the Deep Blue Orchestra project for trying to

explore this aspect. One participant mentioned that he preferred a more

interactive audience: ‘if the audience is going berserk, then the musicians can

react even more, play harder – ‘a reactive loop’ happens. These are the best

performances’. Audiences respond better when the musicians are enjoying

themselves. Another musician said that ‘some of my performances involve the

audience clapping their hands and the dancers and audience surround the

musicians. The length of the performance is adjusted according to what people

want. It is much more enjoyable’. Another participant mentioned the visual

aspect of the Deep Blue Orchestra performance, which makes it more of an

experience for the audience. However one participant was of the view that the

most important part of performing was ‘making music ultimately for yourself’.

Participants talked about the increased ability that the Deep Blue Orchestra was

giving them to extend beyond the traditional orchestra repertoire and



instruments. They felt that there was the opportunity for experimentation and

artistic freedom with this orchestra. One musician said that ‘with many classical

performances, I get bored because there is a set way to do it and I am looking for

a different way that challenges the traditional. With Deep Blue, there is more to

satisfy the audience’s senses such as visuals’. However one participant was

more negative because he felt that the Deep Blue Orchestra performances did not

put so much emphasis on the music. He said that there was a greater separation

between electronic and traditional instruments with the Deep Blue Orchestra

than in other pop groups and ‘the sounds are too separate’.

Participants liked the chance to play with different types of instruments, as they

may not normally have the opportunity to do this. For example, the drummer

enjoyed the opportunity to play with string instruments and the strings liked to

combine with the electronic instruments. One of the other things people

commented about was that there was a ‘relaxed feel’ to the rehearsals that was

enjoyable, with one comment being ‘there is an open vibe and people are

involved’.

Some of the musicians did comment that they would have liked to contribute

more to the artistic input and wanted to take more of a workshop approach,

where different ways of playing and performing could be developed. This would

not normally happen in a traditional orchestra but as the Deep Blue Orchestra

was aiming to be more innovative and inclusive in their approach, the participant

felt that this should be further explored.

When asked about the orchestra of the future, there was a common theme to

allow the Deep Blue Orchestra to be even more interactive. The musicians felt

in general that the Deep Blue Orchestra is an interesting concept and should

continue. There were some comments about the combination of visuals and

music being more integrated and also that a wider variety of musical styles could

be explored with more coherence in musical styles. There was also discussion

about the importance of marketing correctly for it to become successful.



There were differing responses to the question about the role of the audience in a

performance. One of the musicians felt that sometimes the audience wants to be

involved and at others, they just want to understand and experience the

performance. Another commented that it is a very individual and personal

experience for the audience, and so it is different for everyone. One participant

thought that the audience could have a ‘cohesive experience’.

There were different perspectives on their Deep Blue Orchestra involvement

from the musicians, as shown by the focus group responses. However, one

common element that was obvious from observing the week of rehearsals and

performances and the attitude of the musicians, was their enjoyment in their

participation. Comments from the focus group reflected this interest to

experiment with something

different from a traditional

classical orchestra.

Another theme that

emerges from these

responses is the importance

of interactivity for the

musicians and their view of

the audiences.

There were also a number

of requests to further

develop the concept by

integrating different

musical styles and

instruments, which would

bring a more cohesive and

distinctive style to the Deep

Blue Orchestra image.



4.2.4 Audience Survey Results – July 2006

Description of Performance

The performances during the last week in July 2006 were part of the Brisbane

Festival program. The Deep Blue Orchestra had been advertised in the Festival

program and tickets were available to purchase at $15 each. The program was

advertised as

a marrying of the traditional string section of the orchestra with a 5th

section; digital and electronics. Combined with a DJ and VJ with

cameras, screens and lighting the result is an environment of immense

emotional power and great potential.

The program consisted of the following music:

Perpetuum Mobile, from The Penguin Café Orchestra

Raising Up Water, by Phill Wilson and composed specifically for the Deep Blue

Orchestra

Elegy, by Robert Davidson

Vienna by Ultravox

Theme from American Beauty, by Thomas Montgomery Newman

String Quartet in F, by Maurice Ravel

Popcorn, by Gershon Kingsley

Excerpt from Symphony No. 5, 4th Movement, by Gustav Mahler

Misirlou, from a Greek song arranged by Dick Dale

Red Room Revolution, by Phill Wilson and composed specifically for Deep Blue

Flying Dream, by Ian Grandage



In a Summer Place, by Max Steiner

Tomorrow Never Knows, by the Beatles

Off the Planet, arrangement of Holst’s Planet suite – Mars.

The performance had a strong theatrical element to it, as each piece was

expressed by not only the music but included visuals and the performers’

actions. The program was designed to take the audience on an emotional

journey, with the program covering a variety of pieces, from the traditional

classical and modern classical to popular film themes and popular songs. There

were poignant elements such as the scene using American Beauty that depicted

homeless people in the snow, sheltering under the Brooklyn Bridge and

humorous elements such as Misirlou, where the musicians all wore dark

sunglasses and two violinists gave the impression of surfing a wave by playing

each other’s violins. The musicians and electronic performers adopted different

personas for the different pieces of music, such as wearing wide-brimmed

Western hats and high boots for Popcorn.

The performance took place in The Block venue in the Creative Industries

Precinct at Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane and lasted just over

an hour, without an interval. The audience were seated at tables, as in the style

of a club and there was even a bar where people could buy drinks, on one side of

the room. The performers used both the front of the room and the back of the

room for stages and in fact, walked through the audience space at one point. The

performers aimed to engage the audience with these interactive components and

as will be shown by the survey comments and results, this goal was achieved in

many respects.

Audience Description

The audience had a proportion of people that were invited by the performers and

organizers and were therefore non-paying. The first performance on the Tuesday

evening was a preview and all tickets were free. Most evenings the venue was

full, so the audience consisted of approximately 150 people.



The audience consisted of a number of different demographic and psychographic

groups; the age groups were quite evenly dispersed but there was a greater

concentration of students and professionals in terms of occupation. Due to the

invited audience component, the audience also included members of The

Queensland Orchestra Guild, Creative Industries students, traditionally non-

classical concert attendees, music teachers and musicians, friends and families.

220 audience members completed the survey over the week of performances and

the detailed data is recorded in Appendix Two.

Analysis of Survey Questions

The first demographic question showed that the most popular place that

responders liked to hear music is firstly in their own place, in their car, followed

by the concert hall.

The second question’s results showed that the greatest number of people in the

audience preferred classical music but this was closely followed by rock and

jazz. This result is not surprising considering that the Deep Blue Orchestra

program was advertised during the Brisbane Festival, where audiences are often

experienced in classical music. Furthermore, it would be expected that the style

of program for the Deep Blue Orchestra performances would probably attract

people that didn’t only like classical e.g. rock and jazz.

As with the previous December performance, the highest response was that the

musicians/performers were the best part of the performance, with 47% of those

surveyed selecting this answer. This result shows that the audience found that

the way that the musicians interacted with them contributed to their enjoyment of

the performance. By the musicians/performers taking on a character and

individuality, audience engagement was high.

When asked about the worst thing about the performance, there was a mixed

response, as reflected by ‘other’ receiving the highest response with 51%. There

were a few common themes, with people saying that the performance was ‘too

short’ and many not being happy with the comfort of the venue. However many



people responded with saying ‘nothing’. The next highest response was that the

visuals were the element that the responders liked least, with 17% of people

giving this answer. As visuals are not a traditional component of an orchestral

performance, some people may have found this detracting from the music. The

visuals were not designed in conjunction with the music composition, but done

after the fact. This may have contributed to people feeling that the visuals did

not enhance the performance. This conclusion is perhaps more realistic, as the

responses to a further question revealed. 72% of people selected either the

‘strongly agree’ or ‘agree’ response to the question that ‘integration of visual

images and sound facilitates a greater enjoyment of music’.

The question about how people would describe the performance elicited a

number of very positive responses from people. Many people described the

performance as innovative, emotionally evocative and exciting. The comments

support the belief that the audience was emotionally engaged and that the

innovative nature of the performance was a highlight that people enjoyed.

There was a more positive response about whether people would buy a recording

of the performance than from the December survey results. 58% of responders

answered that they would buy a CD/DVD this time. As this is not a very high

proportion, it does indicate that the audience felt that one of the important

elements of the performance was the live and interactive component, and this

cannot be reproduced by watching or listening to a CD/DVD. It also is an

important indicator when considering the different distribution channels to

promote the Deep Blue Orchestra.

There was a very high response of 96% of responders saying that they would

come again to such a performance. This shows that despite some components of

the Deep Blue Orchestral model not appealing to the audience, the combination

of all the elements of the performance working together gave the audience cause

to return to similar future performances.

The surveys responders gave a variety of responses to what they would like to

change about the performance, which probably reflected the wide tastes of the



audience and expectations about the performance. One common theme with the

comments was that the performance should have been longer and that the venue

should have been more comfortable. There were also a number of negative

comments with respect to the visuals, saying that they did not complement the

music. While in the December performance, there were many comments about

the style of the music and the mix of electronic and traditional, this also was true

of the July performances but to a lesser extent. These comments usually

reflected an audience member’s personal taste. This data implies that the

changes and improvement that were made to the instrument mix and the

increased variety of musical compositions for the July performances received a

positive reaction from people.

As with the December performances, there was also a high response for the

‘emotional listener’ choice about the audience role in a performance, with 64%

giving this answer. This correlates with the responses for the following question,

which shows that people strongly believe that musical performances evoke

emotional responses. People could select more than one choice in this question,

so there were differing points of view about the role of the audience with 31% of

responders believing that the audience has a ‘spectator’ role, but 25% believing

that the audience is ‘an active participant’. The Deep Blue Orchestra

performances aimed to provide the audience with more of a participant role than

a spectator, so this result may suggest that audiences do not need the participant

role to engage and enjoy the performance. The following table shows the

different survey responses to the audience role in a performance.



Figure 2: Deep Blue Orchestra Audience Role

Role of the audience in a performance

010203040506070

Audienceis

spectator

Audienceis

emotionallistener

Audienceis passivelistener

Audienceis co-

producer

Audienceis active

participant

Audiencehas

anotherrole

% o

f res

pond

ees

Role of the audience

N=220

The encouraging point about much of the data from the survey, in regard to

assessing the validity of the 21st Century Orchestral Framework factors, is that

nearly all of the responses supported the key elements in the framework. The

performer/audience interaction element scored strongly as did the importance of

an emotional connection. The importance of education or musical background

was also supported as being an essential element for the audience’s improved

enjoyment.

For the last two questions, responses showed that the most popular ways to find

out about music performances are firstly by friends (42%), followed by

newspapers (22%). This response shows the importance of the social network in

attending concert performances. Additionally, responses showed that the most

popular way to attend music performances is with friends (75%).

Some observations on correlation of survey data

The preferred style of music (question 2) was cross-tabulated with the best and

worst thing about the performance (question 3 and 4). This analysis was done

particularly to see if there was any bias from the audience members that were

classical music listeners. The interesting result here was that the



musicians/performers were always rated the best thing about the performance,

irrespective of the style of music preferred by the survey responders. This data

supports the view that the Deep Blue Orchestra performance can appeal to a

wide variety of musical tastes and differing opinions about what constitutes a

good performance experience. It certainly highlights the importance of the

musicians’ engagement with the audience.

The style of music preferred was also cross-tabulated with the role of the

audience (question 9). These results further support the importance of emotional

engagement, with the ‘emotional listener’ achieving the highest response,

irrespective of the style of music preferred. The role of the audience was then

cross-tabulated with age group (question 13) and again the emotional listener

was always the highest response. These results are positive when looking at the

21st Century Orchestral Framework and show the importance of the emotional

engagement element, irrespective of age, musical tastes and audience perception

of a performance.

It was believed by the creative team of the Deep Blue Orchestra that certain

aspects of the performance would appeal to the younger age group 18 – 25 years

in particular. One of these aspects was the visual element and so cross-

tabulation analysis was done to determine the level of this appeal. The data

showed that there is really only a significant difference in the older 56+ years

age group; an average 80% of responders in the other age groups, selected an

agree or strongly agree to the question ‘integration of visual and sound facilitates

the enjoyment of music’.

There was one area where there was a differentiation in age groups and that was

in relation to how people get information about the performance (question 11).

The data showed that the 18 – 25 year olds have the highest proportion of

information from friends (59%) but that email is also an important source across

all age groups.



4.2.5 SMS Data – July 2006

While this was a different method to elicit feedback from the audience, it

provided a way for people to give their opinions quickly and anonymously and

proved a good reinforcement of the data received in the more traditional formats

of surveys and audience focus groups. The audience was told at the beginning of

the evening that they could text their opinions about the performance at any time

throughout the performance. This style of feedback reflected the more

innovative and technologically focused approach of the performance and would

appeal to the younger audience members. Over 100 text messages were received

over the five evenings.

A lot of people simply texted a single word such as ‘hot’, ‘beautiful’ , ‘wicked’

or ‘awesome’. In some cases, there was a particular pattern to the timings of the

texts, so it was possible to identify which opinions referred to a particular

moment in the performance. For example, the audience was very responsive to

Danielle’s ‘cello solo and the string quartet section also elicited many comments.

The texts gave people the opportunity to specifically praise or criticize an aspect

of the performance, and this they did. For example, a text of ‘drums on the wall

- fantastic’ referred to the part in the performance where the drummer was

playing to the beat of the music on a projected visual image of a drum on the

back wall of the venue. Or in another example, a text of ‘the bass is grouse – I

want to sit on the speakers’, which was opposite to comments from the surveys

about the percussion beats not blending well with the overall soundscape.

There were some common themes from the SMS data. There were good

comments from a number of people about the song Popcorn and about the

quartet of musicians ‘rocking out’ and undressing and about their wearing hats.

This showed that the audience was also considering the theatrical aspect of the

show.

Quite a few texts referred to the sexiness of the musicians. Examples of this

were ‘funky girl up back’, ‘very sexy’, ‘Dannii and Sally are hot’. One of the



aims of the performance was for the audience to connect with the musicians so it

seems they were certainly doing this!

Overall the SMS data produced some very positive feedback. There were some

passionate comments which showed people were moved by the performance,

which was the aim. As the SMS format encourages people to be succinct and

comment with only a few words, the responses are often very emotive and

instinctive. This form of survey was appropriate then to the style of the Deep

Blue Orchestra performances, which aimed to engage the audience’s emotions.

4.2.6 Interviews

During the rehearsal period for December and the following July performances, I

spoke to a number of the key collaborators in the Deep Blue Orchestra project to

gain an insight into the development of the orchestra. The following interviews

reflect the findings and how they relate to the 21st Century Orchestral

Sustainability Framework.

Theatrical Director interview

The theatrical director was asked by the two Deep Blue Orchestra creators, to

work with the musicians to develop their performance style and choreograph the

performance for the initial pilot in December 2005 and then for the Brisbane

Festival performance in July 2006.

As the plan was to have no conductor and no music stands, the musicians would

be given a greater role to interact with the audience. The theatrical director felt

that the main goal for the performance was ‘to engage the audience’. He

believed that as this was an evolving project and there would be surveyed

audience responses, this presented an opportunity to trial a number of different

approaches. This was the aim of an action research methodology. He wanted to

‘question traditions, be flexible and have an open approach’.

He treated the orchestra as a ‘theatrical space’ and wanted to bring across not

just the aural aspect but the visual components. In fact for the December pilot,



the aim was to produce a promotional DVD of the Deep Blue Orchestra. For this

reason there was more of a focus on the visual than the aural side. He looked at

the dramatic possibilities and the practicality for staging when choreographing

the performance.

The theatrical director’s view was that ‘the musicians are there to create the

emotion in the audience’ and emotions can come ‘from the architecture of the

space’. By creating the different stagings for each different piece of music, the

dynamics of the performance space are changed. Together with the audience,

who can also change the performance space dynamics, the concept ‘allows for

different layers of images and the creation of different emotions’.

The theatrical director’s approach demonstrates well the importance of the

emotional connection element in the Orchestral Sustainability Framework. In

his words, he was ‘trying to find the human connection with the performance’.

Each piece of music was staged to demonstrate a particular story and took the

audience on ‘an emotional journey’, with the story linking the different musical

works in the performance. The intention here was to guide people to have a

similar emotional journey. He also believed in the ability of an audience to have

a ‘collective emotional experience’. As discussed in the literature review, this is

something normally more attributed to rock concerts than classical concerts. It

was an ambitious goal to try and achieve this for the Deep Blue Orchestra.

Composer interview

There were a number of works by this composer for the December Deep Blue

Orchestra performance, such as Raising up Water and Hong Kong Revolution.

In the interview, the composer expressed his point of view about the need for the

musicians to ‘put in a lot of energy’ into the performance, in order to create a

strong electricity between them. He talked about the importance of connection

between the musicians and this contributing to a greater connection with the

audience. He believed it was important to rehearse in this manner, with good

visual connection between musicians and facial and body expressions displayed.



The Deep Blue Orchestra was aiming to allow the musicians to ‘show their

personality through their instruments’ in a way more akin to jazz and rock

musicians.

In composing the music, he drew on the idea of the Deep Blue Orchestra being

associated with water and hence led to the work Raising up Water. For Hong

Kong Revolution he drew on his knowledge of Canto pop and composed a work

designed to represent a fusion of these cultures. When he was composing these

works, he thought about the target audience for the Deep Blue Orchestra as being

predominantly in the 18 – 35 year age group. Another consideration for him was

how the works should aim to inspire the audience.

The Deep Blue Orchestra musician interview

One of the musicians in the Deep Blue Orchestra, the lead cellist, talked about

the requirement for the musicians to develop trust and respect for each other.

She believed that a rehearsal environment which encourages experimentation

and that is democratic not hierarchical, allows the musicians to contribute new

ideas and feel valued.

She also said that a performance should be about how the musicians are

connecting with the audience; the musicians need to understand what the

audience wants in order to develop this connection.

Director, Creative Media Warehouse interview

One of the co-creators of the Deep Blue Orchestra, the Director has a strong

background as a music entrepreneur and he brought many of these aspects to the

project. He wanted to bring some of the successful characteristics of the

pop/rock music model to the orchestral form. He talked about the fact that

business skills and entrepreneurship are not so usual in the classical music world

but these skills are important to promote and sustain a commercially successful

music organisation.



There were a few main elements that the Director wanted to ensure were part of

the Deep Blue Orchestra: creativity and a democratic model to allow ideas to

develop. He felt that in existing models of the traditional classical orchestra,

creativity was often stifled. The Deep Blue Orchestra would probably combine

many elements that exist already in other music performances such as the

staging, costumes and video, but it would be the combination of all these

elements in this democratic model that would allow creativity to flourish.

He also wanted to use the concept of social marketing to promote the Deep Blue

Orchestra. He realised that to target the younger and more “hip” audience

demographic, marketing must include a strong emphasis on the social aspect of a

performance.

Composer and arranger interview

One of the main arrangers and composers for the initial Deep Blue Orchestra

performance stated that the music chosen for the orchestra ultimately had to have

‘an emotional connection with the audience’. He felt that some of the criteria

required to achieve this were the work’s:

• ability to be communicative and stylistically distinctive;

• practicality for staging;

• dramatic possibilities, and

• suitability for the target audience demographic.

He also felt that assessing how all the works in a performance relate to each

other would contribute to creating that audience connection.

Musical director and producer interview

In this interview, the Musical Director and Producer discussed his vision of the

Deep Blue Orchestra performance. He wanted the audience to be transported

through a range of emotions. To do this, he felt it was important to start the



performance with the more traditional and familiar works and then progress to

more challenging works for the audience to hear. For example, a more

traditional piece for orchestra such as the Mars suite from Holst’s The Planets

would start the program and then the ‘emotional dynamic’ would change as the

program progressed. It is interesting to note that although this was the original

intention, in fact the order of the program for the July performances was

different.

The Producer wanted the repertoire to consist of quite well-known pieces but

played in a way that would not represent a traditional orchestra. This blend of

sounds would include electronic components and percussion together with the

strings. The program would include a variety of genres and some fusion. He felt

it was also important for the performers to be highlighted, rather than just the

music. In this way a solo or virtuoso element could be utilised to connect the

audience with the performers. All of these aspects were demonstrated in the

actual performances in July.

He felt that the program should be

aimed at an audience demographic

representing the baby boomers.

However, earlier discussions had also

focused on a separate younger target

demographic of 18 – 35 year olds.

A strong theatrical element was also

important for the performance, the

producer felt. The performances

were designed to take place in a café-

style setting, with people sitting

around tables, a bar and people free

to move around like in a club or pop

concert.



4.2.7 Reflections on Financial Data - 2006

As the Deep Blue Orchestra performances were part of the Brisbane Festival and

funded by the Australian Research Council and the Queensland University of

Technology, there was a considerable amount of sponsorship funding for the

performances. In addition there were a number of tickets to the performances

which were given as complementary. For these reasons, it is not possible to

analyse the profitability of these concerts in terms of purely box office revenue

and the appeal to a mass or niche market consumer demographic.

However, projections for the Deep Blue Orchestra have been compiled to

determine the commercial profitability for future concerts and touring. While

this data is yet to prove its viability, the forecasts show that it is possible to

achieve a healthy profit from the Deep Blue Orchestra box office. However this

is dependent on achieving full houses with a high audience capacity and so the

development of the commercialisation phase can be quite high risk. These

projections calculate both revenue and costs. The costs include distribution

costs, venue hire, employment costs for musicians, composers, technical staff

and directors, business development costs of advertising, promotion and travel

costs, and other overheads. Revenue has been calculated on a differing ticket

costs basis for corporate performances and public performances at venues of up

to 1500 capacity.

The assumption is that the Deep Blue Orchestra will function as a commercial

entity and rely on box office income as opposed to a sponsorship funding model.

It is an advocate for a profitable, consumer focused model, with an appeal to a

particular target market.



The table below shows the projected profit and break-even analysis as prepared

by Dmand.

Table 3: Deep Blue Orchestra Financial Projections

Breakeven Income Level Year 1 Year 2 Year 3

Total Income 848,880 3,616,880 6,644,532

Variable Costs 376,956 1,606,680 3,141,408

Contribution 471,924 2,010,200 3,503,124

Contribution Margin % 56% 56% 53%

Fixed CostsEmployment Expenses 93,575 410,400 768,900Business Development 16,900 50,700 76,050Overheads 152,362 457,086 675,629

Total Fixed Costs 262,837 918,186 1,520,579

Breakeven Income Required 472,782 1,652,059 2,884,151

Percentage of Forecast Income 56% 46% 43%



4.3 Data Presentation - The Queensland Orchestra

The data for The Queensland Orchestra (TQO) case study comprises the

following:

1) Audience survey results from Maestro Concert

2) Audience focus group from Maestro Concert

3) Audience survey results from Sci-Fi Concert

4) Audience focus group from Sci-Fi Concert

5) Audience Focus Group Winners Concert

6) TQO Musicians focus group responses 2006

7) Interview with CEO

8) Reflections on selected financial data

4.3.1 Audience Survey Results - October 2006

Description of Performance - Maestro Concert, The Pines of Rome –

October 27th 2006

This performance was part of the TQO Maestro Series. This series of concerts

aims to provide the most traditional orchestral works to their audiences and is

particularly targeted towards audiences who prefer this style of music. The

Maestro audience includes the greatest number of subscription patrons out of all

the styles of TQO concerts.

This evening’s concert program was the Brahms Violin Concerto in D major,

Ligeti’s Concert Romanesc and Respighi’s Pines of Rome symphonic poem.

The concert was held in the Concert Hall at QPAC, and the venue was almost

full. The audience included only a very small percentage of younger people,

which demonstrates the bias for Maestro concerts appeal towards the older age



group; out of a total of 45 people who completed the survey, 73% were in the

56+ years age group and 13% in the 46-55 years age group. The occupation of

this audience sample was also mostly professional or retired.

The audience seemed to enjoy the concert, demonstrated by the enthusiastic

applause at the end. From a personal standpoint, I particularly enjoyed the

intensity of emotion showed by the Japanese soloist Kyoko Takezawa, in her

playing of the Brahms. For the Pines of Rome, there was an extended orchestra

and the full symphonic sound was impressive, with the trumpeters playing in an

elevated position and in- the- round.

The orchestra was very traditionally dressed, that is in formal black and white,

and did not really acknowledge the audience, being completely focused on their

music stands. However, the conductor did recognise the applause of some

audience members who “incorrectly” applauded during movements.

Analysis of Survey questions

As with the Deep Blue Orchestra concert, the first question showed that most

people liked to hear music in their own place, but the concert hall and the car

were also highly scored. However, unlike the Deep Blue Orchestra audience, the

results showed that 95% of people surveyed preferred classical music, which was

an expected result, considering that this is a Maestro audience. About 50% of

people also indicated that jazz was also a preferred style.

The best thing about the performance was the musicians/performers, which rated

a very high response with 70.7%, indicating that Maestro audiences do want to

connect with the performers and that the other elements of a performance are of

lesser importance. This rating was in fact higher than the Deep Blue Orchestra

audiences, which is an interesting result.

Many people did not select an answer for what they felt was the worst thing

about the performance. It was also interesting to note that a number of people

were not happy at other people coughing and talking in the audience; they felt a

Maestro concert must be listened to in silence. This is a very different



expectation to the Deep Blue Orchestra concerts and the Sci-Fi concert, where

noise was welcomed.

There were many enthusiastic comments about the performance such as

‘wonderful’, ‘spectacular’, ‘exciting’, ‘moving’ and ‘amazing’. The violinist

was mentioned a few times as being a ‘great soloist’. This is also supported by

other responses that showed that the concert performance was correctly targeted

to the audience, with an overwhelmingly positive response of 97.7% saying that

they would come again to a performance like this.

67.5% of people responded that they would not buy a CD/DVD, maybe

indicating the value of a live performance for the Maestro audience. This could

also point to the audience enjoying the whole experience of attending a live

concert, which cannot be replaced by a recording.

Most people surveyed said that they would change ‘nothing’ about the

performance. One person said ‘leave out the Brahms’, while one person thought

the ‘ear piercing percussion’ too loud. These last two comments show that

Maestro audiences do have different tastes, although both of these people said

they would come again.

The questions about the role of the audience produced some interesting data.

The highest response was for the ‘emotional listener’ choice with 73.8%

responders giving this answer. This was also supported by the subsequent

question, where people strongly agreed that musical performances evoke

emotional responses. The importance of the emotional connection was rated

more highly in the Maestro concert than in the Deep Blue Orchestra concert,

showing that this is in fact a very important element for the more traditional

audience. The survey responses for this question are shown in the following

diagram.



Figure 3: The Queensland Orchestra Maestro Audience Role


0102030405060708090

Audienceis

spectator

Audienceis

emotionallistener


Audienceis co-

producer

Audienceis active

participant

Audiencehas

anotherrole

% o

f res

pons

es


N=45

Responses on the visual question indicated that the Maestro audience is not

strongly in favour of supplementing the concert experience with visuals.

Interestingly, this survey data supported the interaction between audience and

performer, not something that is traditionally associated with the formal Maestro

concert style.

Newspapers and friends were both the most popular way of finding out about

performances, each with a score of 48.8%. The importance of the social network

in attendance at performances is reflected in this result. As the Maestro audience

is of an older age group, this lessens the impact of email and internet forms of

media distribution. Responses showed that the most popular way to attend

music performances is with friends (77.7%).

Maestro concerts appear to be attended by people that also like to attend other

TQO concerts, with 85% of people responding that they do attend other concerts.

The greater proportion of these concerts however is within the Maestro series, so

they are of a similar style.



As shown by the above results, the audience for the Maestro concert did not

contain a great range of age groups or musical tastes. As the demographics are

very narrow, this prevented any further conclusions being drawn when analysing

the correlation between answers to different questions.

4.3.2 Audience Focus Group – October 2006

This evening the focus group consisted of a selected eight people from the

audience who attended the Pines of Rome concert. These participants had been

chosen to give a representation of people with different concert attending habits

and the group also included a variety of different age groups. Some participants

had not attended a Maestro concert before, whereas others were regular

subscribers.

Firstly people were asked about their preferred style of music and most

responded that they liked light classical or classical music with popular

composers such as Mozart, Bach and Beethoven being mentioned. One younger

male participant replied that he liked modern music such as pop and rock. This

preference for classical music would be expected as this fits the demographic for

the Maestro audience.

There were a few common themes in the responses about what people liked best

about the performance. The concert program was thought to contain a good

variety of works and the ‘diversity of the program’ was seen to be a highlight.

The Brahms violin concerto and the violinist was the most popular answer, with

people saying that the ‘soloist was superb’ and that violinists ‘really get to me’.

This was demonstrated by the soloist Kyoko Takezawa, who was very

expressive and emotional with her playing. This point emphasises the

importance of performer/audience interaction and the need for the audience to

connect with the performers. Many people discussed this emotional connection

with the performance, with comments that The Pines of Rome ‘brought tears to

my eyes’, ‘it carried me to another world’ and that ‘I felt good and very involved

with the music’. The tempo and volume of The Pines of Rome builds to an



intense crescendo towards the end of the piece and this stirred some of the

participants.

There were very few negative comments about the performance, demonstrating

that this audience found the style and program of the concert to match their

expectations.

People then discussed their views on the role of the audience in a performance.

One aspect that was felt to be important was that a concert gives the audience the

opportunity to simply relax and enjoy themselves. This can develop into a

deeper experience with the performance when people are ‘transported

somewhere else through the music’. Another aspect mentioned was the ability

of the performers to communicate to the audience and vice versa when they feel

the audience reaction to their performance. One person said that she benefited

from the collective experience of attending a concert as she felt other people’s

responses and she enjoyed that. This point was also supported by another

comment: as a member of an audience, you were able to be part of a number of

people enjoying the performance and that the orchestra was not just performing

for the individual. One participant said that the audience ‘creates the atmosphere

at a concert and even in their silence, they are communicating that they are

enjoying it’. There is a difference between the response of a pop audience where

shouting and clapping are accepted as the way for the audience to show its

appreciation and the respectful silence which characterises classical concerts.

There were comments from participants that although this may make some

people feel more constrained in a classical environment, it nevertheless was a

form of appreciation.

Everyone responded that they would come again to such a performance and this

also reflects the strong audience survey data on this important question.



4.3.3 Audience Survey Results – August 2006

Description of Performance

Sci-Fi Concert, Clocktower Series – August 25th 2006

The performance was advertised to evoke an atmosphere and experience of the

Sci-Fi world; ‘Escape to a musical galaxy far, far away in a concert spectacular

that boldly goes where no concert has gone before! Watch aerial artists fall from

the sky as TQO presents legendary music from your favourite Sci-Fi classics’.

The pre-concert foyer provided a fun environment, with many people dressed as

characters from famous Sci-Fi films, such as Darth Vader, Jedi knights and

Storm Troopers and food and drink available. There were a large number of

children in the audience and City Hall, where the concert was held, was almost

full. The audience demographics showed that out of 24 people surveyed, 33%

were in the 56+ years age group, with the rest evenly dispersed across the age

groups. Over half of the audience described themselves as professional, with the

rest specifying their occupation as management or home duties.

The program started with 2001, a Space Odyssey. As the hall darkened, stars

were projected onto the auditorium ceiling and a recorded voice set the theme by

an introduction from ‘aliens speaking to earthlings’.

While some of the music was played by the orchestra, some of whom were also

dressed in the Sci-Fi theme, acrobats performed in time with the music.

In between some of the musical items, there was a compère speaking in the style

of the narrator from Star Trek and a re-enactment of some scenes from other Sci-

Fi movies. This created interaction with the audience and there was also a

costume competition for the best dressed Sci-Fi character.

Other non-traditional classical orchestral instruments were also integrated into

the performance such as a bass guitarist, electronics and sticks waved to create

different harmonics.



Although this performance was trying to create a more interactive experience for

the audience, there was an obvious disconnect with many of the orchestral

players, who simply looked embarrassed or bored and the comedic aspects of the

performance were not timed well. While some very popular pieces of music

were played, such as the Superman’s theme, ET theme and Star Trek theme, not

all the pieces were suited to a full orchestral scoring.

Despite some of these negative points, the concert was attended by an audience

that appreciated the whole experience. Overall there was a very positive

response as described in the audience surveys conducted and the discussion with

focus group.

Analysis of Survey Questions

In this concert, the audience preference for how they liked to listen to music was

firstly in the concert hall (95%), closely followed by in the car and in their own

place (both 91%).

Classical music was still the most preferred style of music with 95% of

respondents. Although the Sci-Fi concert was part of the Clocktower series of

concerts, this data shows that the audience is still predominantly influenced by

the classical genre.

As with all the other concerts analysed, the musicians/performers rated the

highest, with 65% choosing this response.

This concert was designed to use theatrical elements to enhance the musical

enjoyment of the performance, and so the audience surveyed obviously did not

feel that this goal was achieved, with 33.3% of people saying that this was the

worst thing about the performance. This response is supported by comments that

the dialogue was too long and boring, demonstrating that Clocktower audiences

do want other elements to a performance, but that they want it to be integrated

well and it must be of a high standard.



The responses were very positive to this concert, with many people describing

the performance as ‘fun, a great night out, exciting, different, entertaining,

spectacular’. A few people commented that the dialogue elements were too long

and distracted from the music. However, the audience had a very positive view

of this performance, with 91% of people responding that they would come again.

This indicates that the concert was targeted to the correct demographic.

While only 47% of respondents said that they would buy a CD/DVD, this could

reflect the fact that a great part of the enjoyment of performance is that it is live

and the other visual elements would not be captured to the same extent with a

CD/DVD.

The Clocktower concerts are designed to be more participatory for the audience,

so it is interesting to see that the role of the audience was still seen as ‘emotional

listener’ receiving the highest score with 77% and following the same pattern as

the other concerts surveyed. The ‘passive listener’ and ‘co-producer’ choices did

not score highly.

As could be expected from an audience attending this style of concert, the

importance of interactivity with the performers rated highly and it was also

interesting to find that the context (venue, ambience, behaviour of audience)

contributed strongly to the meaning of a music performance for the audience.

The Clocktower series are designed to be a holistic experience and so it confirms

that the audience wants these aspects, rather than the music being the only

priority.



Figure 4: The Queensland Orchestra Clocktower Audience Role


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Audienceis

spectator

Audienceis

emotionallistener


Audienceis co-

producer

Audienceis active

participant

Audiencehas

anotherrole

% o

f res

pons

es


N=24

As with the other concerts surveyed, information about performances is most

likely sourced from friends and again, attending concerts ‘with friends’ scored

the highest with 54%, reflecting the importance of the concerts as a social

occasion.

The Sci-Fi audience was more open to attending other styles of orchestral

concerts than the Maestro audience with 68% of people responding that they did

attend other TQO concerts and the most popular were firstly Proms, followed by

Maestro.

The surveyed number for this concert was low, so it is difficult to draw any

accurate conclusions from correlated data. However, as with the other concerts,

there were two outstanding points from this analysis: people regarded themselves

highly as ‘emotional listeners’, irrespective of age and style of music preferred

and the musicians/performers were rated the best thing about the performance,

which was also irrespective of age and style of music preferred. The importance

of relating to the musicians/performers is demonstrated in the diagram below,

which shows the comparative results from all three audience surveys.



Figure 5: Audience Preferences: A Comparison by Concert

Comparison of Best Thing about Performance

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The m

usicia

ns/pe

rform

ers

Visual

elements

Sound pr

oducti

on

Style of m

usic

The plac

e

How it

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ou fe

elOthe

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% o

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Deep BlueMaestroSci-Fi

4.3.4 Audience Focus Group – August 2006

The focus group was held in the foyer of City Hall after the concert and TQO

staff had organized a select group of 10 people to participate. The group

comprised of a wide range of age groups from teenagers to retired people and

included some family groups and couples. A few people had not attended an

orchestral concert before so this was a new experience for them and including

these people helped make this analysis more objective.

As could be expected from an audience of a Clocktower series concert, there was

a broad range of tastes in their preferred style of music and classical music was

not always the first preference, as was the case with the Maestro series audience.

Preferred styles of music included electronic, rock, opera, soundtracks, 80’s

music, country, Latin jazz, techno, classical and ‘anything but heavy metal’.

Comments about the performance reflected some themes from the 21st Century

Orchestral Framework. Some of these points were again highlighted when

people discussed their opinion of the best and worst things about the

performance.



Participants talked about the good audience participation and interaction with the

performance and that the MC had facilitated this aspect. This was mentioned as

one of the best things about the performance, described by one participant as ‘the

interplay between the orchestra and the conductor and the audience’.

The concert was ‘fun’ and to be able to laugh and enjoy the performance was

important. There was less formality in the way the orchestra played and they

were more relaxed than in a traditional classical performance. This was seen as

a positive, given that this was an after work concert on a Friday. A few people

talked about the costume competition being great and adding to the atmosphere.

Some orchestra members also dressed in costume and people saw this as a good

thing and that it showed they were having fun. The ‘character of the conductor’

was also highlighted as one of the best elements of the performance and it was

good to see that taking a less conservative approach helped some people engage

more.

As many of the musical works were familiar to people, this contributed to their

enjoyment of the evening and it was a unique opportunity to hear this type of

music performed live (it is usually heard on CD or film soundtrack). In this way

the music was ‘related to other areas of people’s lives’ and consequently they

felt a stronger connection with it. If people had an interest in film or Sci-Fi for

example, then they would be more likely to enjoy the concert. Participants felt

that this style of concert was a way of bringing the orchestra to a wider group of

people and to people who normally may not believe that they would like to

attend an orchestral concert.

There were critical comments about the dialogue element of the performance and

it was felt that this part was ‘too drawn out’ and ‘had a cringe factor’. People

liked the idea but felt it needed to be done in a tighter and more integrated

fashion.

The aerial artists choreography was ‘beautiful’ and the interplay of the

movement with the music contributed to the impact and meaning of the music.

Many of the boys in the focus group said that the attractive aerial performers



were the best thing about the performance, although one person mentioned that

they distracted her attention from the music.

A greater use of non-traditional instruments was mentioned as an element of the

concert that created interest. The electronic instruments that were needed in the

orchestration to emphasis the Sci-Fi style, the harp solo that ‘really stood out’

and the use of the organ at the opening all contributed to a variety of

instrumentation and interest for the audience.

While participants encouraged the use of all the theatrical elements, it was felt

that much more could have been done to enhance the concert experience. The

opening that used lighting effects to project stars onto the ceiling of the

auditorium was good but people felt that the lighting effects could have been

more professional and followed more of a rock concert standard.

The role of the audience in a concert performance was discussed and some

differences were identified between this style of concert and a more traditional

Maestro concert. The musical background of the audience was felt to be

important to their expectations. In the case of the Sci-Fi concert where it was not

a ‘serious classical concert’ and the target audience included children and non-

orchestral attendees, one participant felt it was essential that the theatrical

elements and interactive style assist the audience to deepen their engagement

with the performance.

The importance of marketing orchestral performances to the appropriate

audience was also mentioned as a success factor for a concert. It was suggested

that not all orchestral concerts will appeal to everyone and that the audience that

attended the Sci-Fi concert, may not be interested in a Maestro concert. As the

Sci-Fi concert encourages younger audiences to attend, then the method of

marketing should utilise the electronic media to a greater extent. If potential

audiences are more aware of what the orchestra offers, then their expectations of

concerts will change and it should encourage them to attend more concerts.



Overall, the participants in the focus group enjoyed the concert and all said that

they would come again to such a performance. They would not necessarily buy

a CD/DVD of the performance because much of the attraction of the concert was

in experiencing it live and participating in the event.

In conclusion, this focus group highlighted a number of important themes for

success in an orchestral concert and this was also supported by the audience

surveys for this concert.

4.3.5 Audience Focus Group – July 2006

Description of the performance - Winners Concert - July 2006

The Winners Concert was part of the Brisbane Festival 2006 and was a

collaboration between the Italian organisation Fabrica, TQO and TaikOz. It was

designed to be a one night event only and one of the main feature works of the

festival. The promotion for the concert gives an overview of what the audience

could expect:

Winners is a multimedia music action created by Fabrica and Brisbane

Festival 2006. For one night only in QPAC’s concert hall the world

comes to Brisbane for this world premiere event.

Through music and interactive media, singers, musicians and performers

in different location around the globe….. – will be part of an event that

unites the global community.

Andrea Molino’s vibrant score framed by extraordinary images, sounds,

text, lighting…..

As with the media build up to the performance, the opening kept expectations

high with dramatic drumming and showmanship from TaikOz. Then video

screens showing excerpts of interviews with people from around the world

talking about their experiences of trauma were projected, while the orchestra

provided a musical accompaniment. Also included in the work but via video

link-up were different musicians playing instruments such as the tabla (from



Bangladesh) the saxophone (from U.S.) and xylophone and drums (from South

Africa). Two saxophone players on stage played in a way that created different

sounds that emulated speech.

The performance’s main focus was not the music and in fact the orchestra

musicians were hidden behind a mesh screen. The music was more of an

accompaniment to the spoken word and in my opinion became quite repetitive as

the performance continued. The heavy subject matter created a subdued and

depressed atmosphere amongst the audience and despite the auditorium being

almost full, there was little applause at the end of the performance.

Although not surveyed, from my observations I found the audience to consist of

a broad range of age groups and a variety of different socio-economic groups.

Focus Group Responses

There were eight participants in the focus group and the group consisted of

students, professionals and retired people. All of the people in the group were

invited to the performance, so the responses may be different to a paying

audience focus group. Two people that were originally invited to be part of the

focus group left during the performance as they were ‘bored’ and said they

didn’t like the performance, so did not attend the focus group meeting.

When asked about their preferred style of music, classical music was selected

most frequently but some people also selected electronic, jazz, eclectic, chill-out,

top 40 and minimalism.

Many of the participants commented about the thrilling opening with the TaikOz

drums and that had created ‘a lot of energy’. The concept was thought to be

‘bold’, ‘different’ and ‘exciting’ but again a few participants felt that it had not

really worked. People felt that the concert had started strongly and then ‘fell

away’. Some commented that the momentum was lost during the second half

due to the repetition of the trauma theme and lack of variety in the music. A

positive note was the integration of the different textures such as the interplay of

the visuals with the sound.



Everyone felt that the drumming was the best thing about the performance. The

visuals were also a highlight for a few people despite the despondent subject

matter. One participant commented that ‘many symphony concerts are one

dimensional, but this concert built up many dimensions and affected the

emotions.’ This supports the importance of the emotional connection and the

benefits of using multi-media for this effect.

There were some negative comments about the sound quality and that it would

have worked better with surround sound and more amplification. Comments that

the orchestra was ‘lost’ and ‘sounded tired’ may have resulted because the

orchestra only had a minor role to play in the whole event. Its role was to

accompany the visuals and other feature instruments: ‘the music was simply

there to fill in the void’. As the orchestra was behind a screen, people felt

‘disconnected’ from the music.

Some participants said that they didn’t enjoy the evening very much and that

they felt the theme was a ‘bit preachy and formulaic’. This shows the

implications of dwelling on a sensitive theme such as death, which can cause

strong emotions in people.

One participant felt that the concept could have worked better as a cinema event.

In this way, the integration of visuals and sound could work in a more intimate

environment and without the large cost of this evening’s performance.

The orchestra did not take a bow at the end of the performance and this may

have contributed to the lack of applause at the end of the concert. One

participant said that they felt they didn’t have the opportunity to applaud. This

highlights the importance of people wanting to engage with the performers and

in Winners it was left to TaikOz to be the performers to take on this role.

There was a mixed response from participants when asked if they would come

again to such a performance, reflecting some of the reservations people

expressed about the Winners concert.



Winners was an ambitious project and tried to extend the boundaries of what an

orchestral concert could be. It did demonstrate many of the elements being

reviewed in the 21st Century Orchestral Framework but based on the comments

of the focus group, there are questions about whether it succeeded. Using the

model of a one-off spectacular event within a festival, a broader audience can be

attracted to attend. However this audience needs to connect with the

performance and the orchestra’s involvement should be given a greater role if

people want to relate their experience of the event with the orchestra’s

capabilities. After the Brisbane Festival performance, Winners was again

performed in the Pompidou Centre in Paris as a one-off event.

4.3.6 TQO Musicians Focus Group

A week after the Winners concert performance, I attended the TQO artistic

committee meeting, which was attended by 6 people that day. A number of the

section leaders of the orchestra were part of this group, including the

concertmaster. Similar questions were asked to the ones that had been discussed

previously with the Deep Blue Orchestra musicians.

Firstly, they were asked specifically about the Winners concert and what they as

musicians liked best and least about the performance and the process they had

experienced. Most of the musicians commented that they had enjoyed the

performance, but the elements that contributed to their enjoyment had been

working with the skilful artistic director Andrea Molino, and that their parts were

‘challenging’, so they were not bored. However they didn’t really ‘like the

music’ although they felt it was ‘effective’. They felt once a year was fine for

this type of a performance, as it was an ‘exciting event’.

Many commented that they liked playing with the drumming group TaikOz. This

had been a novelty for the orchestra and added a different element to their

traditional instruments.

The musicians were asked for their opinions on the role of the audience in

traditional concerts versus less traditional concerts. Comments included that the



audience ‘is necessarily passive’ in a traditional concert and efforts in less

traditional concerts for interactivity often come across as ‘forced’ or ‘fake’.

They did mention an exception to this in Nigel Kennedy, the popular violinist,

who inspires audience interaction. Also there was a comment that different

styles of concerts mean audiences will be engaged with the music in a different

way.

A question was posed that referred to the audience reaction and if it changes the

way that the musicians play e.g. do they feed off the audience response? All the

musicians replied that they are so engaged in their playing and that they only

recognise the audience at the end when they applaud. One commented that the

‘last thing you think about is how the audience is reacting’. The emphasis was

on their own performance and skill and if they play badly, a good audience

response will not make them feel better.

They believed that the role of a musician in a traditional classical concert versus

a multi-media concert did differ. They ‘liked the variety’ and the ‘intricacies

involved in a multi-media event’. They understood that the latter was not purely

an orchestral concert and felt it was important the audience understood this also.

The question about what type of orchestra would sustain audiences for the future

provoked a good discussion. It obviously was something they were concerned

about. They said that while there will still be a few traditional tastes, many

people are being influenced by the media and pop culture. In this way, they are

more likely to enjoy something they know or have heard before and if the

orchestra plays this type of music, it will increase their popularity. Another

comment was about the recognition that attending a concert has a social

importance and orchestras needed to emphasise this aspect.

There was a concern amongst the musicians that the ‘cross-over genre is

becoming the staple of the orchestral repertoire’ and that this could damage the

quality of the orchestra. There was a comment that orchestras need to keep their

‘core product of a high quality’. Again, the feeling amongst the group was that



orchestras need to remember what their core product is, despite having concerts

which target different audience tastes.

Some of the attitudes displayed by the musicians in this interview demonstrate

the difficulty in changing the culture of the traditional classical orchestral

institution. These issues will be discussed in more detail in the conclusion

section and what this means for the implications to the research hypothesis.

4.3.7 Interview with CEO, The Queensland Orchestra – April 2006

A meeting was arranged with the CEO, to elicit her opinions on the social,

artistic and economic questions outlined in the data summary section. Her

opinions could then be considered together with the focus group and audience

survey responses to see how closely they aligned or not.

To begin, she discussed what she believed the successful characteristics are for

the 21st century orchestra. She replied that an orchestra needed to be ‘multi-

faceted’ but the first objective should be a commitment to quality playing. She

put this requirement first, before the audience desires. She also mentioned the

necessity to have a strong importance on marketing.

Her description of what makes the TQO unique however showed that the

organisation is focused on trying to build different audiences and cater for the

different community groups in Brisbane. She referred to the Clocktower Series

of concerts which aimed to be more informal and draw in audiences that may not

usually go to a classical concert and also a concert at the Greek Club, which

developed a strong community engagement. This focus on providing a different

product for different audience demographics was very important and TQO

research and program their concerts accordingly. She stated that TQO ‘tries to

sell the experience to the audience’. Again she mentioned that the musicians

need to have a balance of work satisfaction, highlighting that they preferred

doing the more serious and traditional works.

The TQO relies on government funding to a large extent and is trying to increase

its private and corporate sponsorship. The CEO mentioned that over the last year



there had been a 55% increase in private and corporate funding. She stressed the

importance of the corporate sponsor having an alignment in objectives with TQO

and that ‘purely philanthropic relationships don’t exist’.

We talked about the use of experiential marketing in the TQO strategy and how

marketing material should aim to ‘create an emotional experience’, rather than

simply list the specifics of the program. The marketers and the programmers

work together from the start to find the right way to communicate to the targeted

audience demographic. TQO use radio and e-marketing strategies. On average

they require 25% of the budget to be allocated to marketing but for popular

artists such as Nigel Kennedy, the marketing spend will be much less.

The CEO also felt that a more entrepreneurial style of management was essential

for a successful orchestra and that the image of the TQO as depicted in the

Strong Report (2005) was not correct. She said that there was a commercial

focus within management and that there was a workable ‘flat team structure’.

For example, some musicians were represented on the artistic committee, which

makes decisions about programming and marketing.

Concerts that have an interactive component were mentioned and she said that

the traditional Maestro audience did not want this but that it worked well for the

more informal concerts. She agreed that the social interaction was an important

element and that TQO could invest more in this aspect to build audiences.

TQO have programmed more poly-stylistic concerts and are finding that many

pop and rock artists want to work with the orchestra. They have integrated

dance and visual mediums into their concerts. A good example of the cross-over

with different sounds was William Barton’s didgeridoo playing with the

orchestra.

The ultimate aim for audiences, according to the CEO, was that they ‘have a

transformative experience’ and that they enjoy it, but she did not really explain

how this would be achieved.



4.3.8 Financial Reflections on Selected Concerts

Data was available for the two concerts in the case study, The Pines of Rome and

the Sounds of Sci-Fi and to enhance the research, data was also requested for

another special concert, Jazz meets the Symphony, to provide a comparison.

The box office revenue for the latter concert was $99,000, which was much

higher than the Maestro concert which generated $69,000, and the Clocktower

concert which only generated $27,000. This data reflects the popularity of the

Jazz meets the Symphony concert, which involved the high profile jazz

trumpeter James Morrison and was completely sold out. The Maestro concert

relied heavily on subscription tickets and although not completely at capacity,

was able to generate a reasonable income. The Sounds of Sci-Fi was held in a

different venue with a more limited capacity and the tickets costs were much

lower, so these factors contributed to the lower revenue for this concert.

While artist costs, direct marketing and venue costs were higher for Jazz meets

the Symphony, the concert was still profitable. Similarly the Maestro concert

also resulted in a small profit. The Clocktower concert realised a loss, due to

proportionally higher marketing costs and production costs for the extra

technology required.



5 CONCLUSION

The purpose of this chapter is to consider the findings from the research in

relation to the 21st Century Orchestral Framework developed from the literature

and demonstrate how the research case study data supported the validity of the

elements in this framework.

The research study has explored a new arts marketing paradigm where the

audience is at the centre of the orchestral model and investigated whether

essential aspects of an orchestral performance increase audience connectivity

and thereby lead to a strengthened and broadened audience base. The hypothesis

is that this should result in a more sustainable future for the contemporary

orchestra.

5.1 Key findings from the research data

5.1.1 Interactivity

In all concerts, the primary research showed that when the audience was asked to

identify the best thing about the performance, the majority’s response was the

musicians/performers. This indicates that irrespective of the different audience

demographics and concert styles, it is important for people to connect and

engage with the performing artists. In fact, the TQO concerts had a higher

percentage response than the Deep Blue Orchestra concert. This shows that

traditional classical audiences do need to relate to the performers and concert

enjoyment is linked to the performers and not just the repertoire. This data

supports the attraction of attending a live event over listening to a recording.

The result is very positive when assessing the objective of the Deep Blue

Orchestra and audience development strategies for the organisation. Audience

engagement was one of the priorities for this production and this result shows

that the audience felt that the way the musicians interacted with them contributed

to their enjoyment of the performance. By the musicians/performers taking on a

character and individuality, audience engagement was high. The Deep Blue



Orchestra results showed that for an audience to engage and enjoy a performance

the audience role does not need to be one of an active participant. Ultimately it

is the emotional engagement that is the strongest component. It also

demonstrates that if classical musicians were able to demonstrate a greater

connection with their audience, rather than just sitting behind their music stands,

this could help to raise audience numbers. The fact is that the traditional concert

environment presents a barrier between audience and performers, therefore it

does not allow these audiences to fully exploit their desire to interact more with

the performers.

There was a good response in the case study data from all concerts concerning

performer and audience interaction and this supports one of the hypotheses

questions formed in the 21st Century Orchestral Framework. In fact, the Maestro

audience scored highest for this point, indicating that interaction could be

developed more for a traditional audience, as well as for the Deep Blue

Orchestra style concert. The band U2’s description of the benefits of the

collective audience/performer experience are interesting to compare to the

comments from the Maestro audience focus group. In this focus group,

participants also discussed the importance of being part of the collective

audience experience and how it enhanced their enjoyment. The Clocktower

concert data showed that with this style of concert, audience interactivity is very

important. While the Maestro audience wants to include elements of audience

interaction in a more subtle way than a Clocktower audience, the research

demonstrated that it is still an important aspect to them.

The importance of performer or audience interactivity was also revealed in the

literature review. The popularity of well-known musicians/soloists and their

ability to attract an audience and the identification of a particular style and

personality is one of the elements being employed successfully by some

orchestras, such as the ACO and the New York Philharmonic.

One of the issues with increasing audience/performer interactivity is the differing

attitudes of the classical musicians. In the Deep Blue Orchestra, the musicians



revealed that responding to the audience reaction was very important and it

helped them to develop their mutual connection with the audience. However, in

the TQO musician focus group, they did not believe the audience response was

the main emphasis, but instead it was their own level of skill and ability to

perform the works. Overcoming this attitude in the traditional classical music

world may further develop the level of audience engagement and connectivity

with the orchestra.

5.1.2 Style of performance

The importance of context (venue, ambience, behaviour of audience) on the

meaning of a performance was high for all the concerts. It is this element,

therefore, that needs to be considered when planning orchestral performances

and determining what constitutes specific orchestral products for individual

organisations. People attend concerts not only for just the music. It is the

holistic experience that is important. This is true for the more traditional style of

concert audience, such as the Maestro series, where the importance of keeping

all the ritualistic and formal elements of the performance style was demonstrated

from the research. However, while the style of performance was very different

to a concert by the Deep Blue Orchestra, it was also shown to contribute to the

audience enjoyment and connection. In this case, the more informal style of

performance, venue and social occasion were important to make the audience

feel involved, so the audience’s values contribute to their level of involvement in

a performance. In particular, the physical staging of the performance brought an

added dimension to the experience for the audience and as the Deep Blue

Orchestra Theatrical Director said, it allowed ‘the dynamics of the performance

space to change’ and hence created ‘layers of different emotions’ within the

audience. Overall, the data demonstrated that the particular style of a concert is

related to the particular audience it is aiming to attract and the concert style does

play a big part in the overall audience experience.



5.1.3 Emotional connection

One of the highest rating positive responses was the role of the audience. Most

people indicated that they were ‘emotional listeners’. Although all the concerts

were quite different, an emotional connection was established with the audience,

irrespective of the style of music and performance. The Deep Blue Orchestra

concerts were designed to take the audience on an emotional journey by

integrating a theme and story-line to the collection of musical works, which

brought out a variety of emotions such as sadness, excitement and fun. From the

research data, this aim was shown to be successful. The Clocktower concert also

used a theme and story-line with the music and was able to draw on people’s

interest with the Sci-Fi theme to develop the emotional connection with the

performance. The Maestro concert audience rated the importance of an

emotional response the highest of all the surveys and the focus group comments

also showed how strong the emotional connection was with the performance.

This concert included The Pines of Rome, which was a particularly emotive

work, and people discussed how the ‘crescendo of emotions’ was built up in this

music. Emotions can have the opposite effect of distancing people from a

performance if it becomes too overwhelming, as was the case with the Winners

concert and its audience response to the theme of death, loss and tragedy.

While the research data showed that an emotional connection was one of the

main reasons that people attend an orchestral concert, this connection was

formed via different ways for different audiences. This finding supports

Colbert’s view that audiences have different subjective experiences at a

performance that is related to personal meaning (Colbert 2007 p. 112). This is

an important point to understand in relation to the research hypothesis and

Orchestral Sustainability Framework. If this ability to derive an emotional

connection in a traditional classical orchestral concert was shown to a wider

audience than currently, it could help with the perception and the attraction of

this style of concert and assist in audience development strategies. As many

authors commented on in the literature, classical composers also display great

social and personal messages and depth of emotion in their works and opening



up these orchestral works to a different audience could bring about an increased

popularity for these performances.

5.1.4 Poly-stylistic genres

There was an important difference between the TQO concert audiences and the

Deep Blue audience in regard to their preferred style of music. While the Deep

Blue audience still had classical music as the highest selection, there was also a

high number of people preferring jazz and rock music, whilst the TQO audiences

predominantly preferred classical music. This shows that a choice of poly-

stylistic music repertoire would be more of a success in a Deep Blue Orchestra

concert than in a TQO concert, given their different target audiences. The

differentiation in orchestral product is an important factor for audience

connectivity.

The Deep Blue Orchestra concert data research highlighted the interest in the

blend of different sounds and the importance of using modern instruments in an

orchestral performance. The use of the electronic and the percussion together

with the more traditional sounding strings, attracted a broader audience and in

particular provided a sense of the familiar to the younger age group, who are

used to hearing these sounds in the other genres of music listened to today.

While the research data showed that the Maestro audiences want to hear their

preferred standard repertoire of works, other orchestral concert audiences want

to hear a broader repertoire that includes pop, rock, jazz and world music

integrated with the classical style. The success of the Adelaide Symphony

Orchestra with The Edge and the ACO program repertoire demonstrates that

there is a new audience for this type of music and it provides a way for

orchestras to expand their traditional audience demographic.

5.1.5 Distribution

The research study brought up an interesting issue about the importance of

recordings versus the attraction of live performances. Much of the literature

showed that people with an interest in classical and orchestral music sustained



this interest by listening to radio and more recently, by downloading the

increasing number of recordings available on the internet. This point emphasizes

the importance of distribution strategies to the success of an orchestral

organisation. The younger generation accessing the internet recordings for

classical music, which provides the opportunity for building their own individual

play-lists is an encouraging sign and provides another avenue for orchestras to

promote their work and develop a wider audience.

However, the question in the research study about buying a CD/DVD of the

performance showed that for all the concerts, this was not a very high priority for

the audience. This could demonstrate that people do actually prefer to attend a

live performance if they have the choice. It highlights the importance of

attending a live performance to people, as the live performance can provide more

of an “experience” and the relevance of other factors such as the social occasion

and connection with the performers.

Despite the low response in the surveys on the interest in the recordings, this

method of distribution and promotion for an orchestra could provide another way

to bring their work to a different market. The younger internet generation is one

that could be targeted with a variety of cross-marketing methods. Internet sites

could suggest these orchestral recordings to people when they have an interest in

other similar musical styles or tastes, and this is a way to introduce a new

audience for the orchestra. As Kolb (2000 p. 208) discusses, technological

developments and possibilities for audience decisions on how the art product

will be consumed, is important for the development of arts organisations.

5.1.6 Inter-sensory perception

Williams (2003) has discussed the strong focus on the visual and the influence

on the music world, in particular the impact on the ‘MTV generation’. This

importance on the visual is also highlighted by a number of other authors. Some

orchestras have tried to explore this phenomenon and it is interesting to see the

different audience responses to performances which include visual and

sometimes theatrical elements. The literature review showed that multi-media



performances may increase the attraction for some audiences but for the more

traditional concerts, it was not popular. This pattern was supported by the

research case studies. Again this supports the argument that the orchestral

product needs to be specific for different audience tastes. The importance of

including visual or theatrical elements in a performance was a question that

showed some different results for each of the concerts. As the Maestro audience

was a more traditional classical music audience, it is not surprising that they

scored lower than the Sci-Fi and Deep Blue Orchestra audiences. While there

were some negative comments about visuals and theatrics from these latter two

concerts, it was more about the quality and integration with the music rather than

an objection to their inclusion in the performance. These latter audiences

appreciated that they were experiencing a different and more innovative style of

presentation to the traditional concert and so were generally encouraging of the

attempt.

5.1.7 Marketing and Promotion

Many of the orchestras using a successful marketing strategy to reach their target

audiences were aware of the importance of promoting themselves in a unique

way. Developing the unique style and brand of the orchestra is a way to attract

and retain the niche targeted audience, as demonstrated well by Houston’s

Orchestra X. The pop music world has shown the benefits that can come from

marketing strategies aimed at an audience with a target set of common values,

such as the Spice Girls and their promotion of ‘girl power’ (Harris 2004), which

was aimed at a young, female demographic. One of the objectives of the

marketing strategy of the Deep Blue Orchestra was to promote the group as

being ‘hip’ and innovative and to ‘reinvent the traditional orchestra’ (Deep Blue

promotional video, 2006). In this way, the marketing strategy was aimed at

audiences who liked this style and could identify and relate to these objectives.

Supporting the findings from the research data that showed audiences identified

with charismatic and well-known performers, were the results of some of the

TQO marketing campaigns. In the case of the Jazz meets the Symphony concert



and the promotion of well-known musician James Morrison, the marketing

spend required to attract a sell-out audience for this concert was smaller than for

other less popular artists and repertoire. This fact highlights the importance of

promoting the individuality and personality of orchestral performers to provide

an opportunity for improved audience connectivity.

In understanding the importance of the emotional connection for an audience,

many orchestras are using experiential marketing strategies to attract people.

TQO demonstrated this point with campaigns that focused on how people would

feel if they attended a concert, drawing on its vision to ‘touch the hearts and

minds of Queenslanders’ (The Queensland Orchestra 2007).

The research study showed how the social aspect can be important in the

marketing of an orchestral performance. The influence of the social network

was demonstrated by the way people find out about a concert and also in the way

they attend a concert. Attending the concert with friends was the most popular

way for all three concert audiences. This information could be used to better

identify ways of encouraging people to attend future concerts. The most popular

way to find out about music performances was from friends and this shows the

importance of the social network in attending concert performances. The

secondary research; the 2001 Saatchi and Saatchi Report, Australians and the

Arts and the Classical Music Consumer Segmentation Study from the Knight

Foundation in 2002, all supported this finding. Many people will attend a

concert because they are asked by friends and not primarily because they are

interested or aware of this concert performance. Understanding the social

networking aspects can assist orchestras in their marketing strategies, by

focusing on the social benefits of attendance when they are looking to attract

future audiences.

5.1.8 Business Partnerships

The TQO aimed to increase its private and corporate sponsorship, and over the

2005-2006 year found an increase in funding of 55% due to these relationships.

The Deep Blue Orchestra relied on funding from a variety of partners for its



launch at the Brisbane Festival. The Deep Blue Orchestra, as a smaller ensemble

which would travel frequently, has different cost requirements to a large city

orchestra such as TQO and consequently the requirements for the financial

support of both orchestras is different. TQO will continue to require more

funding to survive, whereas the Deep Blue Orchestra aims to become financially

sustainable from primarily box office income. These specific funding

requirements are demonstrated more generically by other examples in the

literature review. The large symphony orchestras all require some element of

funding from either private or government sources but more flexible, smaller

orchestral ensembles such as Steve Reich Ensemble and Kronos Quartet are able

to be commercially self-sufficient.

5.2 Conclusions

Overall, all the case study concerts were a success in that most of the audiences

responded that they would come again to such a performance. These concerts

were able to demonstrate a level of audience connectivity, by illustrating the

audience’s ability and interest to relate to and be involved with the music

performance and the orchestra. This also indicates that all the concerts were

correctly targeted to their respective audiences. A conclusion that can be drawn

from this data is given the different audience demographics, it is important to

cater for a variety of different niche markets. In this context, the definition of

“niche” is a group of people who have a continuing loyalty to a particular style

or orchestra and which defines a specific target audience for concerts.

The example can be demonstrated by the Maestro concert audience, who were

very specific in their orchestral tastes and did not attend other styles of concerts.

Niche markets are discussed as growing in importance in the 21st century by

Anderson with his concept of ‘The Long Tail’ (Anderson 2004). This point of

view says that ‘popularity no longer has a lock on profitability’ and that

organisations should embrace niche markets. Anderson talks about how the

digital world can provide a much greater opportunity for exposure to different

musical styles and groups.



If this concept is extended to the orchestral world, it means that there is a

demand for different orchestral products each with different styles and

repertoires and a broader audience can be captured by catering for these various

niche markets. Audience connectivity can therefore be achieved in a variety of

ways, as long as the performance is appropriate for its individual niche market

audience characteristics. This research study found that in fact many orchestras

are providing different concert programs and styles for their different niche

audiences. These orchestras are targeting a consumer market model but a niche

market, not a mass market. The business model for the orchestra is still box

office driven but each style of concert is targeted differently for a different niche.

While this business model may demonstrate strong audience connectivity, there

is still a question about whether this leads to orchestral sustainability. Not all of

these niche market concerts can realise a profit due entirely to box office

receipts. This was shown in the research by the TQO’s Clocktower series

concerts. There may be a requirement for other funding such as private and

corporate sponsorship, to sustain all the niche market projects of an orchestra.

However, an orchestra that attempts to attract these various niche markets is

connecting with a much broader audience than if it only provided a single style

of program.

In the context of niche markets, the Winners concert performance was designed

as a one-off multi-media event as part of a festival. Using this business model of

a one-off spectacular event within a festival, a broader audience can be attracted

to attend, one that may not usually attend orchestral performances. However,

while the factors to ensure audience connectivity can be present, this model is

different to the box office driven niche consumer market. The commercial

realities of this type of concert are based on receiving funding from festival and

other partners, so the financial profitability of such a performance should be

analysed on a different basis to the other TQO and the Deep Blue Orchestra

concerts. A sustainable model for this type of event may be possible if private

and or public funding is always part of the model.



The research also demonstrated that connectivity exists with a variety of

audiences but it often is not identified and promoted to achieve the best effect for

both the audience and the performers. The numerous emotional listener results

showed that emotion is a very important reason why audiences choose to attend

a concert. Emotional connection plays a big part in audience connectivity.

Audience connectivity through emotion does exist for the more traditional

concerts as well as for the more innovative style concerts, as the research

concluded and this presents an opportunity for orchestral groups to firstly

understand this in greater depth and utilise the information in a beneficial way.

Using strategic repertoire selections, presentation styles and audience

development and marketing strategies, orchestral management can exploit this

knowledge more and draw in new audiences for classical orchestras. Using

experiential marketing strategies is a good example of accessing people’s desire

for the emotional and how they will feel if they attend an orchestral performance.

There is still a strong desire from people to attend live orchestral performances.

Many examples of this point came through the focus group discussions, such as

drawing on the collective audience experience and the opportunity of relating to

the performers. Despite the growing influence of technology, the importance of

live events is still evident. While it is useful for orchestras to utilise the digital

media for distribution and exposure to a wider audience, it was shown that

audience connectivity can be enhanced by attendance at a live concert.

Orchestras need to respond to changing markets to remain competitive. The

change in musical genres, the fast pace of technological change and demographic

changes has made it imperative that orchestras are cognoscente of these changes.

Orchestral organisations and their product need to change along side these

societal changes and not stand still, or they face the danger of remaining stuck in

the past. A good example of this is the use of the digital distribution channels to

develop a new audience. Successful business models are focused on innovation

and as Pink (2005) suggests, the difference between successful enterprises and

failing ones is the extent of their creativity and their ability to come up with new

ideas. While there may still be much experimentation on how to present the



most engaging concert to draw in audiences, it is important that orchestras try

different strategies to remain competitive and to stay in touch with the demands

of new audiences. One thing that new audiences want is innovation, as

demonstrated by the Deep Blue Orchestra research.

The research conclusions in this chapter show the relevance of the various

elements in the 21st Century Orchestral Framework in relation to the research

hypothesis in this study. The aim of the research was to analyse the various

elements of the Orchestral Sustainability Framework and determine if these

contribute to increased audience connectivity with the orchestral performance. It

has been shown that some of the elements in the framework strongly result in

increased audience connectivity. In particular, the elements of

performer/audience interactivity, emotional connection, performance style and

strong branding/marketing all helped build audience connectivity. The research

data also showed there were other elements such as education, poly-stylistic

genres and distribution channels which also contribute to audience connectivity

but in these cases, it was more closely dependent on the target audience

demographic and concert style. For example, when the effect of musical

learning on building audience connectivity was analysed, the research showed

that this was dependent on the specific audience type. In the case of the Maestro

audiences, musical learning was a factor that helped them understand and enjoy

the performance, whereas with the Deep Blue Orchestra concerts, many of the

non-arts attendees did not require this educational background to connect with

the performance. As the framework has evolved over the course of this study,

the original framework factor of ‘entrepreneurial management’ has now been

included under ‘business partnerships’, and the ‘blends of instruments and

sounds’ is incorporated under ‘poly-stylistic genres’.

The following diagram shows the attributes of audience connectivity as revealed

by the research. The attributes which are relevant for all types of concerts and

orchestras are differentiated from the ones relevant for specific niche markets,

which are in italics.



Figure 6: Attributes of Connectivity

The 21st Century Orchestral Sustainability Framework can now be revisited, to

determine how the results from the research have impacted on it. The conclusion

that orchestras need to cater for a variety of different niche markets is important

when assessing the relevance of the various factors in the framework. As

discussed, some of the factors are relevant for all audiences, while others are

specific to a particular concert style. Repertoire using poly-stylistic music

genres and inter-sensory perception are more applicable for audience niches

similar to the Deep Blue Orchestra audience and musical learning is more

applicable for traditional orchestral audiences. Consequently, the framework

now incorporates a classification for traditional orchestral performances and for

contemporary orchestral performances, such as the Deep Blue Orchestra. The

emphasis of the research on audience connectivity has lead to a revision of the

framework and to the construction of an ‘Audience Connectivity Model for

Orchestras’, as shown here:

Audience Connectivity

Marketing

Business Partnerships

Attributes of Connectivity

Distribution Channels

Musical Learning

Performance Style

Interactivity

Poly-stylistic Genres

Emotional Engagement

Inter-sensory Perception



Figure 7: Audience Connectivity Model for 21st Century Orchestras

REQUIRED ELEMENT

AUDIENCE NICHE

Contemporary All niches Traditional

Performer/audience

interaction

● ● ●

Performance style ● ● ●

Emotional

engagement

● ● ●

Musical Learning ●

Poly-stylistic music

genres

●

Inter-sensory

perception using

visuals and theatre

●

Business

partnerships

● ● ●

Strong branding

and marketing

● ● ●

Variety of

distribution

channels

● ● ●

The figure illustrates that different audience connectivity factors are relevant for

different audience niches. This has implications on the choices orchestras make

about their product, their audience development strategies and their distribution

models. The research has shown that audience connectivity has an impact on all

these choices and that putting the audience at the centre of the orchestral model

brings a different perspective to their approach and business model. Despite the

different audience niches, there is still a need for audience connectivity across all



types of performances. The first part of the research hypothesis that the

orchestral sustainability elements help build audience connectivity, has therefore

been supported in this study.

The research hypothesis assumed increased audience connectivity contributes to

orchestral sustainability, as it has specifically been defined in this study. The

contribution of audience connectivity towards orchestral sustainability is yet to

be supported . It is logical to deduce that the more connectivity offered and

presented, the more audiences increase their participation and attendance. This

can lead to sustainability for the orchestra. Sustainability was defined as the

situation when an orchestra produces an artistic product to satisfy its audience,

which results in a combination of box office income and sponsorship funding.

The research study has shown that orchestras can produce an artistic product to

satisfy a variety of niche markets. Since the case study was undertaken, the Deep

Blue Orchestra has built a niche market and a defined audience connection

during the initial stages of its commercialisation. Although this study was not

able to investigate fully the contribution of this audience connectivity on the box

office income, a logical deduction is that this will contribute to box office

revenue generation. For true sustainability however, there is a requirement for

the organisation to be financially viable. This financial viability may come from

a number of sources such as box office revenue and private and public funding.

The relationship between box office revenue, sponsorship requirements and their

dependency on audience connectivity can then be explored further. The research

hypothesis in this thesis then leads to a suggestion of orchestral sustainability.

Not all of the factors in the Orchestral Sustainability Framework were able to be

fully investigated in this research study and therefore there is still opportunity to

understand this framework more deeply and the relevance to audience

connectivity and orchestral sustainability. From the research, it has appeared

that there are many interactions and dependencies between all the framework

factors and that some factors may have greater impact than others. This could be

further explored in future research, allowing for a refinement of the Attributes of

Connectivity, and the 21st Century Orchestral Sustainability Framework.



Finally, by putting the research findings in the context of the current state of the

orchestral industry, it is useful to consider an article in the Weekend Australian

(Wynhausen 2007). This article discusses some of the issues, already presented

in this research study, that the Australian orchestras have faced and comments

that over the last few years there has been a small, but inspiring rejuvenation in

their audience numbers. By employing some of the strategies discussed in this

study, orchestras are growing their audiences ‘incrementally but steadily’. This

article talks about one of the main reasons for this situation and according to

some leading orchestral industry people, it is because ‘orchestras are bringing in

fresh audiences with well thought out niche programming’. These comments are

very encouraging in the light of the research findings. In many ways, the lessons

learnt from new contemporary orchestras such as the Deep Blue Orchestra can

be applied to the more established ones to realize greater audience diversity and

assist with audience development strategies.

This research study has provided a very strong basis from which to view the

future of the orchestral art form. The next decade will provide an interesting

opportunity to observe how orchestras continue to face the challenges and

rewards of a dynamically changing industry and audiences.



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APPENDIX ONE

DEEP BLUE ORCHESTRA AUDIENCE SURVEY – December 2005

Q1. Do you like to hear music

in the car □ You may tick more than one

a concert hall □

a pub □

your own place □

some other

place □ specify

24

2112

24

9

in the cara concert halla pubyour own placesome other place



Q2. Which style of music do you prefer

classical □ You may tick more than one

rock □

jazz □

country □

other □ specify

19

13

15

1

13

classicalrockjazzcountryother

Q3. What did you like best about this performance/showing. Select only one box.

the musicians/performers □ the style of music □

the visual elements □ the conductor □

the sound production □ how it made you

feel □

The highest response was that the musicians/performers were the best part of the

performance, with 10 people giving this answer, followed by the sound

production, with 7 responses.



Q4. What did you like least about this performance/showing. Select only one box.

the musicians □ the style of music □

the visual elements □ the conductor □


feel □

The highest response was that the style of music was the element that the

responders liked least, with 8 people giving this answer.

Q5. How will you describe the performance to people at work tomorrow or the next time you

meet.

This question elicited a number of varied responses such as

‘experimental and innovative’

‘awesome production and great musicianship’

‘fun and new look’

‘an orchestra with costumes and choreography’

‘exciting and moving, new’

‘contemporary orchestra’

‘music that would be good in a movie’

‘modern, interesting, innovative’

‘contemporary and encapsulating’

‘different to what use to but enjoyable’

‘amazing collaboration of drama, lighting, costume, sound production. Loved

every piece’

‘mood well created with sound and lighting’

‘interesting’

‘break away from traditional ways of experiencing a performance’

‘refreshing, innovative, explorative but boundaries can still be extended’



Q6. Would you buy a CD of this performance.

The greater proportion of people said that they would not buy a CD, with 17

responders giving this answer.

Q7. Would you come again to a performance like this.

The very positive response to this question was that everyone would come

again, with the exception of only one responder.

Q8. If you could change anything about this performance, what would it be

Many of the responses here were concerning the style of music presented and

the balance between the instruments. Responses included ‘try and make the

electronic and percussion components a bit more subtle’, ‘the beats were a little

80’s sounding’, ‘lame techno sounds’, ‘less electronics’, ‘keep recorded music

quieter’, ‘a little more of a break away from classical required, integrate a

variety of other styles’, ‘greater musical variety, wider range of instruments’,

‘more variety, less repetition’, ‘more sense of journey’, ‘music didn’t really

push what could be done in terms of style’.

Other comments were about ‘better speaker presentations’, ‘let the musicians

move around more’ and ‘an area for audience to move to the music’.

Many people did respond with ‘nothing’.

Q9. How would you describe the role of the audience in a musical performance.

spectator □ co-producer □

emotional listener □ active participant □

passive listener □ other (specify)

There was a high response for the ‘emotional listener’ choice, with 19

responders giving this answer.



Q10. Rate the level you agree with the following statements. Where 1 is strongly disagree and

5 is strongly agree.

Integration of visual images and sound facilitates a deeper

understanding of music.

1 2 3 4 5

A person’s musical background and experience influences their

expectations of a musical performance.

1 2 3 4 5

A musical performance evokes an emotional response in the

audience.

1 2 3 4 5

Pre-performance information is important to enjoyment of a

musical performance.

1 2 3 4 5

The context (venue, ambience, behaviour of audience)

contributes to the meaning of a music performance.

1 2 3 4 5

Interaction between the audience and performers results in

audience enjoyment.

1 2 3 4 5

Responses on the visual question indicated that the audience mostly agreed with

this statement, with 27% of responders strongly agreeing.

Reponses on the influences on expectations question also showed that the

audience mostly agreed with this statement, with 38% of responders strongly

agreeing.

The emotional response question got the highest response with 77% of

responders either agreeing or strongly agreeing.

The pre-performance information question elicited a more mixed response and

had the highest number of people (30%) disagree with the statement.

Both the context and the interaction questions had a positive response, with 66%

of people in either agreement or strong agreement.



Q11. How do you usually find out about music performances.

newspaper □ Television □

email □ Friends □

Internet search □ personal

invitation □

33%

8%

5%8%

32%

14%

newspaperemailInternet searchtelevisionfriendspersonal invitation



Q12. Do you like to attend music performances.

solo □ with family □

with friends □ never □

17%

61%

22%0%

solo

with friends

with family

never



APPENDIX TWO

DEEP BLUE ORCHESTRA AUDIENCE SURVEY – July 2006



a concert hall □

a pub □

your own place □

some other

place □ specify

Preferred place to hear music

0102030405060708090

100

Like tohear music

in car

Like tohear musicin concert

hall

Like tohear music

in pub

Like tohear music

in ow nplace

Like tohear music

in someother place

% o

f tot

al re

spon

dees

Preferred place to hearmusic





rock □

jazz □

country □

other □ specify

The results showed that the greatest number of people in the audience

preferred classical music but this was closely followed by rock and jazz.


the musicians/performers □ the style of

music □

the visual elements □ how it made you

feel □

the sound production □ Other □

Best thing about performance

05

101520253035404550

The m

usici

ans/p

erfor

mers

Visua l e

lemen

ts

Sound pr

oducti

on

Style of

music

The place

How it

made you

feel

Other

% o

f res

pond

ees

Best thing aboutperformance





the visual elements □ how it made you

feel □

the sound production □ Other □

There were a variety of responses in this question, as reflected by ‘other’

receiving the highest response with 51%. There were a few common

themes from these responses, with people saying that the performance was

‘too short’ and many not being happy with the comfort of the venue.

However many people responded with saying ‘nothing’.


meet.

Some of the highlights are reported below:

‘Fabulous innovative exciting fresh’

‘Mesmerizing, involving the audience the whole time’

‘Emotional. Uplifting and diverse.’

‘A mixture of contemporary music and visual theatre. Astounding’

‘Exciting, engaging, great to listen to and see.’

‘New era in classical music.’

Q6. Would you buy a CD/DVD of this performance.

There was a more positive response to this question than from the

December performance survey results. 58% of responders answered that

they would buy a CD/DVD this time.


The very high positive response to this question resulted in 96% of

responders saying ‘yes’








As with the December performances, there was also a high response for

the ‘emotional listener’ choice, with 64% responders giving this answer.

This correlates with the responses for Q10, which show musical

performances evoking emotional responses.





1 2 3 4 5



1 2 3 4 5


audience.

1 2 3 4 5



1 2 3 4 5



1 2 3 4 5


audience enjoyment.

1 2 3 4 5

Responses on the visual question indicated that the audience mostly

agreed with this statement, with an average response of 3.75.


audience mostly agreed with this statement, with an average response of

3.69.



The emotional response question got the highest response with an average

response of 4.05 and this was also the highest scorer in the December

survey.

The pre-performance information question elicited a more mixed response

and scored an average of 2.69

The importance of context question scored an average of 3.95.

The interaction between audience and performer question also had a

positive response, with an average of 3.57.

Histograms showing the frequency of responses from strongly disagree to

strongly agree are shown below.







invitation □

Responses show that the most popular ways to find out about music

performances are firstly by friends (42%) followed by newspapers (22%).

Source of Performance Information

05

1015202530354045

Newsp

aper

Email

Intern

et

Televis

ion

Friend

s

Person

al invit

ation

% o

f res

pond

ees

Where information issourced






Responses show that the most popular way to attend music performances

is with friends(75%) and this response corresponds to the previous

question, when people showed the importance of finding out about

performances from friends.

Performance attendance

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

Solo With Friends With Family

% o

f tot

al r

espo

ndee

s




Cross-Tabulation of Survey Results Age group * Integration of visual and sound for enjoyment of music Cross tabulation

Integration of visual and sound for enjoyment of music Total

0 1 2 3 4 5

Age group 1 Count 2 4 3 1 17 24 51

% of Total 1.0% 2.0% 1.5% .5% 8.5% 11.9% 25.4%

2 Count 1 3 1 2 10 20 37

% of Total .5% 1.5% .5% 1.0% 5.0% 10.0% 18.4%

3 Count 2 3 0 5 13 20 43

% of Total 1.0% 1.5% .0% 2.5% 6.5% 10.0% 21.4%

4 Count 1 1 0 6 15 14 37

% of Total .5% .5% .0% 3.0% 7.5% 7.0% 18.4%

5 Count 2 2 2 7 10 10 33

% of Total 1.0% 1.0% 1.0% 3.5% 5.0% 5.0% 16.4%

Total Count 8 13 6 21 65 88 201

% of Total 4.0% 6.5% 3.0% 10.4% 32.3% 43.8% 100.0%

Information about performance * Age group Cross tabulation

Age group Total

1 2 3 4 5

Information about performance

1 Count 6 12 10 11 11 50

% of Total 3.0% 6.0% 5.0% 5.5% 5.5% 25.1%

2 Count 5 2 5 1 1 14

% of Total 2.5% 1.0% 2.5% .5% .5% 7.0%

3 Count 3 7 4 2 1 17

% of Total 1.5% 3.5% 2.0% 1.0% .5% 8.5%

4 Count 2 1 2 0 1 6

% of Total 1.0% .5% 1.0% .0% .5% 3.0%

5 Count 30 12 18 16 10 86

% of Total 15.1% 6.0% 9.0% 8.0% 5.0% 43.2%

6 Count 5 3 3 7 8 26

% of Total 2.5% 1.5% 1.5% 3.5% 4.0% 13.1%

Total Count 51 37 42 37 32 199

% of Total 25.6% 18.6% 21.1% 18.6% 16.1% 100.0%



APPENDIX THREE

Queensland Orchestra – Maestro Concert Audience Survey



a concert hall □

a pub □

your own

place □

some other

place □ specify


020406080

100120

Like tohear

music incar

Like tohear

music inconcert

hall

Like tohear

music inown place

Like tohear

music inpub

Like tohear

music insomeotherplace

% o

f tot

al re

spon

dees






rock □

jazz □

country □

other □ specify

Preferred style of music

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

Preferclassicalstyle ofmusic

Preferrock styleof music

Preferjazz styleof music

Prefercountrystyle ofmusic

Preferother styleof music

% o

f tot

al re

spon

dees





the musicians/performers □ how it made you feel □

the sound production □ The place □

the style of music □ Other □


01020304050607080

The musicia

ns/perform

ers

Sound production

Style of music

The place

How it made you fe

el

% o

f res

pond

ees


Q4. What did you like least about this performance/showing. Select only one box. Choices as

in Q3

Many people did not select an answer for this question.


meet.


67.5% of people responded that they would not buy a CD/DVD,

maybe indicating the value of a live performance for the Maestro

audience.




The concert performance was correctly targeted to the audience,

with an overwhelmingly positive response of 97.7% saying that

they would come again to a performance like this.


Most people surveyed said that they would change ‘nothing’ about

the performance





The highest response was for the ‘emotional listener’ choice with

73.8% responders giving this answer. This correlates with the

responses for Q10, which shows musical performances evoking

emotional responses.







1 2 3 4 5



1 2 3 4 5


audience.

1 2 3 4 5



1 2 3 4 5

The context (venue, ambience, behaviour of audience) contributes

to the meaning of a music performance.

1 2 3 4 5


audience enjoyment.

1 2 3 4 5

Responses on the visual question indicated that the audience was neutral

about this statement, with an average response of 2.93, indicating that the

Maestro audience is not strongly in favour of supplementing the concert

experience with visuals.



3.82. Maestro audiences tend to have a greater musical knowledge than

other TQO concerts.


response of 4.49.


and scored an average of 2.95.

The importance of context question scored an average of 4.27,

demonstrating that this is important to the Maestro audience and supports

the fact that these audiences do like the holistic concert experience.




positive response, with an average of 3.93. This data supports the

responses to question 3, where the importance of the

musicians/performers was identified.




Internet search □ personal invitation □

Sources of Performance Information

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

Newspaper Email Internet Television Friends Personalinvitation

% o

f res

pond

ees








0102030405060708090

Solo With friends With family

% o

f tot

al re

spon

dees

Performanceattendance



Q13. Do you attend other Queensland Orchestra concerts

And if so, which ones

Maestro □ Tea and Symphony □

Music on Sundays □ Intimate Classics □

Proms □

Maestro concerts appear to be attended by people that also like to attend

other TQO concerts, with 85% of people responding that they do attend

other concerts.

The greater proportion of these concerts however is within the Maestro

series, with 94.7% attending these. The Intimate Classics and Music on

Sundays are also attended.

Other TQO Concert Attendance

0102030405060708090

100

AttendMaestro

AttendMusic onSundays

AttendProms

Attend Teaand

Symphony

AttendIntimateClassics

% o

f res

pond

ees

TQO Concerts



APPENDIX FOUR

The Queensland Orchestra – Sci-Fi Concert Audience Survey



a concert hall □

a pub □

your own

place □

some other

place □ specify


020406080

100120

Like tohear

music incar

Like tohear

music inpub

Like tohear

music inown

place

Like tohear

music inconcert

hall

Like tohear

music insomeotherplace

% o

f res

pond

ees






rock □

jazz □

country □

other □ specify


020406080

100120

Preferclassicalstyle ofmusic

Prefer rockstyle ofmusic

Prefer jazzstyle ofmusic

Prefercountrystyle ofmusic

Prefer otherstyle ofmusic





the musicians/performers □ the style of

music □

the visual elements □ the place □


feel □


010203040506070

The musicians/p

erform

ers

The visual elements

The sound p

roduction

Style of m

usic

The place

How it m

ade you fe

el

Best thing aboutperformance



the theatrical

elements □

the place □


feel □

This concert was designed to use theatrical elements to enhance the

musical enjoyment of the performance, and so the audience

surveyed obviously did not feel that this goal was achieved, with

33.3% of people saying that this was the worst thing.




meet.


While only 47% of respondents said that they would buy a

CD/DVD, this could reflect the fact that a great part of the

enjoyment of performance is that is live and the other visual

elements would not be captured to the same extent.


The audience had a very positive view of this performance, with

91% of people responding in the affirmative. This indicates that the

concert was targeted to the correct demographic.


Not everyone responded to this question but of those that did, many

commented that the dialogue between the music was too long,

boring or distracting. A couple of responders indicted that they

would like the prices of the concert to be cheaper.





As with all the other concerts surveyed, ‘emotional listener’

received the highest score with 77%.







1 2 3 4 5



1 2 3 4 5


audience.

1 2 3 4 5



1 2 3 4 5



1 2 3 4 5


audience enjoyment.

1 2 3 4 5

Responses on the visual question indicated that the audience mostly

agreed with this statement, with an average response of 3.96.



3.625.


response of 4.41.


and scored an average of 2.96.

The importance of context question scored a high average of 4.125.


positive response, with an average of 4.04.







invitation □

Where information is sourced

05

101520253035

Newspape

rEmail

Intern

et

Televis

ion

Friends

Person

al invit

ation

% o

f res

pond

ees


As with the other concerts surveyed, information about performances is

most likely sourced from friends.






Again ‘with friends’ is scored the highest with 54%, reflecting the

importance of the concerts as a social occasion.


0

10

20

30

40

50

60

Solo With friends With family

% o

f res

pond

ees




Q13. Do you attend other Queensland Orchestra concerts

And if so, which ones

Maestro □ Tea and Symphony □

Music on Sundays □ Intimate Classics □

Proms □

68% of people responded that they did attend other TQO concerts

and the most popular were firstly Proms, followed by Maestro.

Other TQO concert attendance

0102030405060

Attend M

aestro

Attend M

usic on Sundays

Attend Proms

Attend Tea an

d Symphony

Attend In

timate

Classics

% o

f res

pond

ees

Other TQO concertattendance



APPENDIX FIVE

Deep Blue Orchestra Video

Go to link:

www.deepblueorchestra.com/media.html

http://www.deepblueorchestra.com/media.html

deep blue orchestral project v10.0 · 2010-06-09 · shari lindblom master of arts (research), 2009...

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