Another full day. We started early, with the League’s Annual Meeting breakfast at 7:45 in the ballroom. In the past the Annual Meeting has been a formal (paid) luncheon with a keynote speaker. In order to reduce the conference by a day so that more orchestra executives can come, it’s now a continental breakfast (free), so the turnout was good. 
I had made plans to meet Jeffrey Biegel, the piano soloist, to talk about his new plans for another piano concerto commissioned by a consortium of orchestras — he’s done several in the past. This one he wants to be global, with 100 orchestras each contributing $1000. Check back this summer for an article about orchestra consortium commissions.
At the annual meeting, the 2008-09 ASCAP awards were presented, Robert Hanson, Music Director of the Elgin Symphony for the past 35 years, was given special recognition, and the Helen Thompson Award was presented to Graham Parker, Executive Director of the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra.
We all then traipsed over to Orchestra Hall, just a block away but it was raining. All the weather websites had said it would be nice, so who thought to bring an umbrella? I had to run back up to my room for my laptop, so I got there a bit late — just in time to see Jesse Rosen and Nick Webster present Henry Fogel with the Gold Baton, the League’s highest honor. Henry got a rousing standing ovation, and seemed very moved to have such an award presented in Chicago’s Orchestra Hall, where he’s spent so much of his professional life.
Next was Beyond the Score with the Chicago Civic Orchestra — Martha Gilmer of the CSO had discussed these programs briefly at the opening session, and I was prepared for a lecture-demonstration of how they put these programs together. So I booted up my computer and lowered the screen to reduce glare, and prepared to take notes. I caused a mini-riot in the balcony!
A gentleman behind me pointedly asked me whether I planned to have my laptop on during the concert and I told him I was hoping to write an article and would keep the screen down, but needed to take notes. Suddenly a woman behind him went nuts (I guess you could say ballistic!), called an usher, created a huge commotion! The man explained to me that it was a concert, and I quickly shut down the computer. Suddenly I was descended upon by ushers, glaring and hovering. The man came to my rescue and explained that all was resolved amicably and he and I chatted a bit, but the woman was still fuming. I had decided to use my laptop as a table on which to hand-write notes on a pad, and I guess she thought I was going to boot it back up when the ushers weren’t looking. Turns out they had sold tickets to the general audience for this concert — no wonder they were annoyed by my computer glare! I’d had no idea it wasn’t just us League delegates in the hall, nor that it actually was a real performance, not a demonstration. Ah well — makes a good story.
The Beyond the Score performances was amazing. The CSO is in the midst of a 3-week Dvorak festival, so they were exploring the New World Symphony. I’ll write more about this performance this afternoon, giving credits and details, but basically they had an actor playing Dvorak and two narrators, one presenting history and Dvorak’s life and the other discussing the structure of the music. A video accompanied the script, which included many well-chosen excerpts from the symphony performed by the Civic Orchestra conducted by Sir Mark Elder. The synchronisation between the performers, the orchestra, and the video was impressive.
Back to the hotel in more rain, a few emails to Eastman, then I attended an invitation lunch for Development staff (I got an invitation through my HSO email where I write the grants part-time). I couldn’t find the room – no signage – so missed the presentation, but the discussion was interesting. Everyone is hurting — what to do?
The afternoon’s Musicians’ session was about building a career from multiple employers. Hosted by Bob Wagner of the New Jersey Symphony, two Chicago contractors explained how they do business. We had about 15 attendees and the conversation got pretty lively.
Next came a general session of musicians, general managers, operations staff, and artistic administrators to hear more about Churn — how to get first-time concert attendees to come back. This was a big presentation at last year’s conference, and Jack McAuliffe (formerly with the League) gave some statistics of the results some orchestras have had putting these findings to work. I spoke with Jack briefly about linking to the Oliver Wyman PowerPoint presentation on the League website from Polyphonic, so I can write an explanation of the findings of the research study. Looks promising, so again, check back later this summer. In the meantime, take a look at the League’s website for many of the materials presented at Conference.
The last session was Peer-to-Peer Roundtables — 22 round tables set up in a ballroom with representatives from many orchestras and organizations presenting a program, an idea, a solution, etc. We could pick 3 out of the 22 — each had 20 minutes to present their solution, and did so 3 times. I listened to a woman from the League explain how to use social networking (Facebook, Twitter, MeetUp.com, etc.) to attract younger audiences, Margo Drakos from InstantEncore.com explain how their free Web 2.0 technology lets orchestras provide immediate downloads of performances and other concert material, and Beth Perdue Outland of the Indianapolis Symphony describe their Peregrinos Project — a commissioned work exploring Indianapolis’ expanding Latino population with composer Gabriela Lena Frank.
A reception was then held in the Exhibit Hall for all delegates, with much meeting and greeting.
BTW, culture won out tonight — I went to the new wing of the Chicago Art Museum and stayed until closing. I’ll try to find out how the pub crawl went …
