Klarinet Archive - Posting 000669.txt from 1995/03

From: Sonya Wilcox <wilcox_s@-----.EDU>
Subj: Letter to the Editor
Date: Mon, 27 Mar 1995 10:12:27 -0500

>From: George Riordan <griordan>
>Subject: Letter to the Editor
>To: letters@-----.edu
>Date: Tue, 28 Feb 1995 22:42:47 -0500 (EST)
>Cc: griordan@-----.edu
>Content-Length: 3530
>
> To Letters to the Editor, Tallahassee Democrat:
>
> In reading Kerry Dexter's community column of February 23, I found
>myself wondering if we
>lived in the same community. In her column, she commented that "the
>fine-arts communities" in
>Tallahassee are not expanding their reach.
>
> The fact is that classical/jazz/world music audiences are growing
>in Leon County, and that the
>audiences are made up of people from virtually every area of the
>community. Consider the following
>recent events:
>
>* November: 3,963 attend the production of "Rigoletto" by The
>Florida State Opera at FSU
>* December 2 and 3: the fabled FSU Bands' "Prism" concert draws
>3,000, filling Ruby Diamond
>Auditorium twice; tickets were sold out weeks before the performance
>* December 6: the debut performance of the New Baru World Band
>packs Dohnanyi Recital Hall
>* January 28: a capacity audience of 1,500 attend the concert by
>the University Symphony
>Orchestra, while others are turned away
>* Feburary 3: Jaap Schroeder, visiting Baroque violinist, performs
>with Baroque Southeast in
>Opperman Music Hall for a standing-room-only crowd
>* February 9: The board of the Tallahassee Symphony Orchestra votes
>to move to double
>performances of masterworks concerts beginning next season, to accommodate
>a larger audience
>* February 10: Samba Oba and Mas 'n Steel ignite a capacity crowd
>* February 12: The FSU Gospel Choir brings down a packed Opperman
>Music Hall
>
>This short list does not include recent capacity-audience concerts by the
>University Singers, the FSU
>Jazz Ensemble, and other groups.
>
> Furthermore, all of these concerts drew a markedly different
>audience, from people from all
>walks of life, from elementary school students through retirees.
>Naturally, there is a core of people that
>attend many different concerts. However, to illustrate the fact that
>different groups attract different
>audiences, the Tallahassee Symphony Orchestra and the University Symphony
>Orchestra both draw
>1,000 to 1,500 to each concert, yet only about 20 to 30 percent of their
>audiences overlap.
>
> The FSU School of Music alone offers the community some 400
>performances each year--and
>this does not include countless more concerts given by local soloists and
>groups, or at FAMU, TCC, or
>in public and private high, middle, and elementary schools.
>
> Of course, only a small percentage of our community's concerts
>draw capacity crowds, but
>total audiences for classical/jazz/world music concerts in Tallahassee
>number in many tens of
>thousands--and these numbers are expanding not only in size, but in
>diversity, as well.
>
> FSU School of Music and its community support group, the
>University Musical Associates,
>have been actively engaged in audience development, and have achieved
>considerable success. As one
>example,the Musical Associates would like to invite the public,
>particularly families, to a"hands on
>event" at Sellers Amphitheater at 2:00 p.m. on Sunday, March 12. The
>Capital Brass Quintet will
>perform, Samba Oba and Welson Tremura will help the audience to perform
>Brazilian music, while
>Professor Michael Bakan will enlist children into a monkey army to help
>"save the queen" in the
>realization of a Balinese performance work.
>
> For information on FSU School of Music events, call 644-4774 or 644-2508
.
>
>George T. Riordan, Assistant Dean, FSU School of Music
>griordan@-----.edu
>
>(NOTE: this letter is also being sent via fax at 599-2155; due to
>formatting differences, the fax may be easier to read.)
>
>