Building an audience in school music programs

I recently found myself at a fantastic percussion ensemble concert at WCSU. The group featured about 20 percussionist and two guest artists - Legendary vibist Dave Samuels, and Grammy-Winning drummer Joe McCarthy. As an alumnus of this ensemble, I gladly attended. In total, it seemed that there were about 60 people in attendance - mostly family, faculty, and friends of the musicians performing. It's a shame though, that there aren't just a few more people from around that campus who check out those events. Especially considering the level of talent represented on stage.

This weekend, April 25-27th, WCSU will host a Jazz Festival featuring John Scofield and Wallace Roney. The concerts will be well attended, but I would imagine there will be single digit representation of student body outside of the music/arts department. As an alumnus of the jazz department, I can recall the things that helped make this festival a huge success and consider how that might apply to my own concerts and festivals in the future. 

First, the Jazz students are heavily involved in the planning and promotion. In 2004 we drove around to assigned streets with flyers and tacks. I'm sure that still goes on, but I guarantee a great deal of promotion happens through social media as well. All of the university student jazz groups perform, and high schools and middle schools from all over CT participate in the festival. Naturally, this builds the audience and creates a connection with the University. I am bringing my group this year (our 3rd year going) and I plan on doing so for as long as I am teaching. It's a fantastic tradition, which brings me to some other thoughts on building an audience for my own program.

Luckily, I joined programs that already had established concerts and events with a great built in audience. The chair of the fine arts program has worked hard to keep these events a tradition. The Winter and Spring Jazz Band concerts happen at the same time every year - Fat Tuesday, and the second Friday in May. This consistency is important not only for reducing potential scheduling conflicts, but so people know about these events well in advance. The May Jazz concert features a selection of hors d'oeuvres presented by the school's culinary program. That collaboration immediately builds the audience. Not only do we have families of Jazz Band students, but parents and friends who want to sample the food made by the young chefs. 

I am now working on creating a new tradition for this same program - participation in a Jazz Festival, which I had the pleasure of co-creating along with the folks at Infinity Hall. Last year's festival was on May 19th and featured 2 bands. This year, we have 6 bands performing on June 2nd. I'm hoping for a great turnout - Perhaps you can join Northwestern Regional 7 at the 4:00 PM Set! I have considered some things that I think will contribute to the success of this event and this tradition... First, the date needs to be consistent - So it does not conflict with the busy school calendar, and can gain a following. Also, since the main promotion is by our students, it is vitally important that they get excited and see the benefit of this festival. So far it has been the amazing opportunity to play in that beautiful room, but hopefully in the future it will include more collaboration with other schools, guest artist performances, and clinics. Ultimately, if I can't get the students as excited as I am - we'll have an issue filling the room. 

The first thing I do is buy 4 tickets for the event. Not only does it support the group, but it puts my money where my mouth is. I tell the students, I just bought four tickets - my family will be there. Will yours!? In addition, I send email blasts and drown the Facebook feed in direct links to ticketing. I am happy to do this, as the students benefit more from my leading by example. I'm not going to do well getting them to promote and sell tickets if I can't even do it on my own. 

I hope to continue to have great luck with attendance at the regularly-scheduled concerts while creating new traditions. Ultimately, I need to make sure we continue to have an audience for our events so the students can feel like all of their hard work and efforts really paid off. They deserve the opportunity to play for a receptive audience and I'll continue to do my best to see that happen. 

For those of you reading - What kinds of traditions do you have at your schools? What are your most well-attended concerts and from whom do you see the most support? Do your administrators and colleagues attend? Your feedback is appreciated!