How to Engage the Millennial Generation in Choral Music

1) Offer More than Just Music

Examine the kinds of concert experiences that resonate with young audiences—not just the music, but all the attributes of attending a cultural event. Consider, for example, the scene at the 9:30 Club in Washington, DC, a longstanding venue for pop, rock, and alternative music acts that usually attracts a crowd of young professionals. Audience members can drink beer and soda, talk and move about with their friends, use their cell phones, and cheer, dance, or sing along during the performance if they feel like it. The concert experience at the 9:30 Club is rarely just about the music—it's about interacting with friends; it's about seeing what the performers look and act like in the flesh; it's about dancing and drinking and merriment. Because it offers more than music, it's not an experience you can get when you stay home and listen to streaming or downloaded music.

2) Be Relatable, Be Relevant

When reaching out to young audiences, find a way to anchor your repertoire in their social and cultural values. Unfortunately, classical music—just by virtue of being called classical music—can often register as esoteric. Let's change that. No matter how well-known a piece is, give it context that people can easily relate to.

Offer audiences an event that "you just have to experience" in order to know what it's all about. Millennials in particular are always thirsting to get the scoop on the next new and noteworthy thing.

Take Verdi's Requiem—a piece about death, destruction, and deliverance—and recast it as an anthem about overcoming drug and alcohol abuse. Set a performance of the Liebeslieder Waltzes as a high school prom. Combine your Brahms' Requiem performance with a poetry slam about grief and loss. A few creative adjustments to the staging and marketing of your program could help build inroads with young audiences who are looking for relevancy in classical music. Of course, putting a modern-day spin on an old piece isn't a new idea, but it still feels like the exception rather than common practice; it does require taking risks. Go a step further and program pieces that are immediately recognizable to young audiences. I would love to hear a choral arrangement (sung in traditional choral style) of Rihanna's "Umbrella" or Ray LaMontagne's "You Are the Best Thing" or The White Stripe's "Seven Nation Army" or even Ke$ha's "We R Who We R." Can you imagine? Make a choral arrangement from a song that no one would expect to hear. Commission "mash-up" pieces that combine elements of classical music with contemporary popular music. For example, why not mash up the "Lacrimosa" from Mozart's Requiem with The Verve's "Bittersweet Symphony"? How about Rachmaninoff's "Now Let Thy Servant Depart" and Radiohead's "Reckoner"? Not only would a classical/contemporary mash-up be a cool experiment, but in a very concrete way it would build bridges between old and new music.

3) Embrace Unique Approaches

Cultivating young audiences might involve bending and breaking traditions. Consider Chicago's Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind. Yes, you read that right: Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind. The name is attention-grabbing and intriguing. It makes me wonder: What the heck is it? "I can't really explain," says my boyfriend, who is taking me there. "It's just something that you have to experience." The line of young adults stretches around the corner of a non-descript building. The price of admission is $9 plus a roll of a die. If the event sells out, the entire audience gets free pizza (now there's an incentive for me to bring my friends!). When we enter we receive an absurd name tag. Tonight my name is "Shampoo." My boyfriend is "Jumping Turtle." Why? Who knows? Who cares? No one asks. Absurdity for its own sake is part of the fun. The performance hasn't even begun and we are already engaged. We sit down in a small, no-frills black box theater. An acting troupe, the Neo-Futurists, is to present 30 short plays in 60 minutes. I already like this show and it hasn't even begun. Not only do I know exactly how long it's going to last, I'm now curious to see if the troupe will be able to pull off all 30 plays. The plays range from silly to thought-provoking to poignant. A sketch in which two actors recite Shakespeare monologues while being squirted in the face with water guns is followed by a heartbreaking play about a woman taking care of her ex-husband's dying wife. Here's a fun fact: Too Much Light is one of the longest-running shows in Chicago today. Is it any wonder? Its non-traditional pre-performance mischief draws you in, but it is the compelling and diverse quality of the work that keeps audiences coming back. The order of the show is different every night and plays are cycled out every week, so you won't know what to expect the next time.

Write down all the expectations that people have when coming to your concerts, then deliberately change some of them around.

Let's take a page from Too Much Light and offer audiences an event that "you just have to experience" in order to know what it's all about. Millennials in particular are always thirsting to get the scoop on the next new and noteworthy thing. Write down all the expectations that people have when coming to your concerts, then deliberately change some of them around. For example, what if, like at Too Much Light, the audience determines the order of the show rather than the artistic director? What if the audience were required to stand on stage while the choir sits in the seats? What if there was no stage at all? Team up with other local organizations to hold events that people can't get anywhere else. For instance, people have often remarked about the transcendent quality of choral music. Your chorus could partner up with a yoga studio or network of religious organizations to provide "meditation concerts." Clear out the pews and chairs, and let the audience do yoga or prayer while listening to your music. Present an "iPod Shuffle concert" in which your chorus and other music acts in your community (rock bands, jazz combos, hip hop groups, string quartets, pop singers, etc.) put on a variety show. A concert like this might appeal to audiences who, because of iPods and other mp3 players, have become accustomed to hearing lots of types of music in one sitting. It may also enable your chorus to be heard by audiences that don't usually listen to choral music. Who knows who you might convert? To better understand what kind of experience audiences of all ages would like to have at your concerts, just ask them. Issue a short survey at your next concert or on your Facebook page to learn more about them and their wants. Social media tools are often positioned as a way to communicate outward, but they can also be used to gather insight from constituents.

This article is adapted from The Voice, Spring 2011, "The Face of Today's Audience."