Last night I had the opportunity to hear the Iris Orchestra play, with guest soloist Branford Marsalis. Musically it was a great concert, but what struck me was the approach this symphony takes to its audience.
I've been reading and thinking a lot about classical music accessability lately, largely thanks to this article by Alex Ross. I agree with Ross, that it is critical for classical organizations to identify what are the core values that define classical music - and in the same breath, what are the peripheral elements that we can change. I think the Iris Orchestra is breaking some of the peripheral classical 'rules', and is making a much stronger connection with their audience because of it.
At the beginning of the concert, a random (as far as I can tell) orchestra member welcomes the audience with a short speech. Last night, she talked about how it felt to be a part of such a close group of musicians, how at home she felt in Memphis with her host family, and a little bit about the music they were going to play. Next, the conductor (Michael Stern) talked to the audience about the program. He was casual, funny, and clearly passionate about the music, and all of this transferred to the audience as if by osmosis. We all got excited about the program right along with him. Unlike many "conductor chats" I've seen, Maestro Stern's talk actually had some musical substance, and gave the audience concrete elements to listen for and look forward to. The whole speaking bit took less than 10 minutes, but it made an enormous difference to the attitude and interest level of the audience.
This is connecting with your audience. This is what it means to make an audience feel that classical music is a part of their life, that this orchestra is a part of their community. Instead of struggling against concert conventions, Iris just changes the game. They actually imbue their audience with a passion for the music, and let them know that it's OK for a symphony (Shostakovich no. 9 in this case) to sound "mocking," "sarcastic,"or "funny." It's OK to have fun listening to classical music. They programmed film music beside modern songs, in the same concert with a major symphony and a jazz chart, and the audience loved it. To me, this is the future of the symphony, if not all classical music. We must connect with our audiences, or our art form will die.
If classical music is dying, it is because we've had rigor mortis for years. Iris Orchestra makes music and musicianship come to life for their audience, and I wish more organizations would do the same.
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