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Daily Press
Published September 3, 2006
Consistent quality best selling point
Are we over-saturating the region with arts events? In a column two weeks ago, I introduced the topic in light of presenting organizations that bring artists into our region. Today I want to talk about local organizations such as the Virginia Symphony, Virginia Opera and Virginia Stage Company, and countless other smaller groups, that produce art for the region.
While presenters struggle with which artists to book that will help build a diverse audience base, locally based organizations struggle with programming, image and accessibility. Balancing audience-pleasers with new works or little-known works that deserve to be heard is a never-ending juggling act. And cultivating the kind of excitement that will make audiences want to attend (remember the slogan, "must-see TV"), deals with programming but also with quality. In our gridlocked region, location also makes a difference.
This region tends to have pretty conservative tastes when it comes to the works people want to hear. Many times, organizations lead off with well-known selections as a way of bringing out audiences and generating excitement they hope will carry through the rest of the season. Two organizations, the Virginia Symphony and Virginia Opera, aren't taking any programming risks with their opening events.
The symphony's Friday and Saturday concerts include Mussorgsky's "Night on Bald Mountain," immortalized in Disney's "Fantasia" movie; Tchaikovsky's popular violin concerto performed by the fiery Nadja Solerno-Sonnenberg; and Stravinsky's "Rite of Spring," still a wild ride almost a century after it was written. Virginia Opera opens its season Sept. 29 with Bizet's "Carmen," one of the most often performed pieces in the repertoire.
The symphony has enough concerts in its season to appeal to different tastes, but the opera has only four slots to fill. After "Carmen" comes two works never seen here before - Floyd's "Susannah" and Handel's "Aggripina" - which may be tough sells. Here's where the issue of quality comes in, for audiences have to believe that the opera, or any other organization, will produce a quality product if they're going to attend a performance they know little about.
The stage company has taken a different approach with its season, mixing an American classic like "To Kill a Mockingbird" with a season of largely unfamiliar works. Their strategy to bring audiences fresh, cutting-edge theater seems to be paying off.
Accessibility is another piece of the puzzle. New performing halls have brought the arts closer to communities and in my estimation, have generated new audiences. I also think it's true, as one reader pointed out, that there isn't that much duplication. Most people who attend events at the Ferguson Center for the Arts at Christopher Newport University probably won't drive to the Suffolk Center for Cultural Arts or the new performing arts center in Virginia Beach, or vice versa.
But back to the quality issue, an increasing number of people in South Hampton Roads are willing to drive to the Ferguson to hear the symphony perform in an acoustically superior venue. Symphony President Carla Johnson reports that the orchestra's best-selling series is at the Ferguson - after only one year. It may be that the opera and the stage company will find ways to increase their presence on the Peninsula.
That tells me that the arts haven't over-saturated the market. Organizations continue to find new audiences through a variety of ways. To me, consistent quality is always the best selling point.
David Nicholson can be reached at 247-4794 or by e-mail at dnicholson@dailypress.com.
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The Virginia Symphony Orchestra with a complement of 79 professional musicians under the direction of Grammy-nominated Music Director JoAnn Falletta performs 140 concerts annually, reaching 200,000 concert goers every season in venues throughout the region. Our education and outreach programs reach 53,000 students and adult learners every year. The Virginia Symphony Orchestra is the cultural cornerstone of the performing arts in Hampton Roads.
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