Building an Audience

As far as building an audience goes, I believe those with already large numbers in the band and chorus programs definitely have it easier. After all, if there are 80 kids in the band and 100 in chorus, you’re taking into account all the parents, extended family, friends, and faculty filling the seats, without any significant effort put in to get people to come to your show – they’re there almost by default.

            But what about a program with about 15-20 kids combined? Certainly there’s going to be a bit of a struggle to fill the house. As band directors, we naturally worry about how many people will attend – we want the exposure to the community and the potential to attract new members. But as frustrating as it is for the directors who play for an empty house, it’s probably a hundred times worse for the students performing.

            I remember my fifth year at UConn, when I gave a composition recital. I tried really hard to get a lot of people to attend, constantly talking about my recital, and advertising around the music building and Facebook and Twitter and so on and so forth. There were about 25 people in the audience that night, and most of them were my family. I kind of felt like a kid who invited all the kids in his class to a birthday party and no one showed up (taking the final bow was the equivalent of me sadly blowing out the birthday candles alone.)

            All right, maybe that metaphor was a little too depressing. But it was definitely KIND of like that!

            What I’m saying is, when kids play to a near-empty theater, there’s almost a feeling of, “Why am I even doing this crap? Literally nobody cares. Everyone shows up to football games… maybe I picked the wrong thing to get into.” We don’t want our students feeling this way ever. Music is such a wonderful thing in everyone’s lives – it makes the world keep turning. So what can we do?

            Here’s my take on things: put the responsibility on our students to bring in the crowd. Give them the task of getting the word out! If they want people to attend their concert and see the fruits of their hard work all semester, then they’ll care enough to get something going. If they have a social media account, or several, post a blurb about the concert. Make a Facebook event about the show and list some of the songs that are being performed that night. If they work a part-time job, post a flyer on the bulletin board and tell their co-workers. If they go to church with their families, post a flyer there and put an ad in the church bulletin. If they volunteer at a senior center, or any other community service area, tell everybody! Friends, neighbors, relatives, significant others… that’s a lot of potential seats! Of course, the band director will keep plugging away behind the scenes as well, but oftentimes this the only source of promotion for these events.

            The bottom line is that we must make our students know that they make a difference when it comes to these things. They have a huge hand in making our concerts successful, not only with their practicing and performances, but with the advertising as well. Give it a try – you’ve really got nothing to lose!