When I first arrived in New York in 1982, there was a woman I knew very slightly who could be spotted at nearly any given Met performance of a Wagner opera. She always sat in the same place—the center...

“The wonderful thing about the amateur chorus,” the conductor Robert Shaw once said, “is that nobody can buy its attendance at rehearsals, or the sweat, eyestrain and fatigue that go along with the...

“My board won’t do what I need them to do.” That’s the complaint Lori L. Jacobwith says she has encountered the most often in more than 25 years as a Twin Cities-based communication strategist and...

Any discussion on audience development would not be complete without listening to the audience itself, but breaking the fourth wall of the stage can be a challenge. It's easy enough to round up the...

When we speak of “government support” for the arts many of us automatically think of direct funding in the form of grants. An organization fills out an application and sends it to an agency, where it...

How did you get started in choral music? I grew up in a Mennonite community, which is known for its four-part a cappella singing. It is also a community with a strong sense of peace and justice. That...

1. Flexibility in Ticket Sales Today's consumers want flexibility and your chorus is best served by recognizing this. Flexible ticket exchange programs should be available for subscribers, and some...

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...

"Mamaaaa...! A to G?" "Hmm." My mother chops through a carrot. "F. I'll take an F." "Flat, natural, or sharp?" She points to the ceiling with the knife. "Sharp?" "Okay, but minor or major?" My father...