Concert Programming

What makes a good performance program?

1. Balancing variety and cohesion
2. Conviction in the choices made (NY Times Article)
3. Relevance/Empathy/Exclusivity
What factors should be considered when deciding on a program?
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.

Length (55 minutes of actual music = 1:30 minute concert)

Vary the energy level
Audience/Occasion/Venue
Anniversaries/traditional services
Challenging but achievable selections
Ending strongly
Budget (added)
Instrumentation (added)

Is it necessary to program a parodys original piece so a comparison

can be made with some awareness on the part of an audience?
Of what value are resources such as stock programs?
Such as https://www.fjhmusic.com/band/pguide.htm
What methods can be used to make new compositions fit in to a
program rather than create it?

Research/Resources:
http://www.theguardian.com/culture-professionals-network/cultureprofessionals-blog/2013/oct/09/classical-concert-programming-brittensinfonia
The very best concert programming is firmly rooted in the world
around us and there's currently a whiff of adventure and risktaking

permeating our musical choices, which classical promoters ignore at

their peril.
http://musiciansway.com/blog/2014/11/3-ways-to-build-concertprograms/

1. Build Intuitively with Current Rep, then Discover the

Essence
Make a repertoire list comprised of titles you currently know as well
as older ones that you could restore to concert-ready condition. If your
list isnt large, consider partnering with one or more peers to compile a
list of your combined repertoire, and then design a
multiperformer concert.
Using pieces on your list, craft a program that offers compelling
contrasts, emotional trajectory, and fits in your time frame. Next,
search for essential qualities that unite those compositions. For
instance, are the compositions ripe with innovation or thematic
borrowing? If so, maybe concepts of innovation or borrowing could
anchor the program title as well as the promotional materials you
create.

2. Build Around a Favorite

Beloved compositions can be cornerstones of creative programs. You
might choose a favorite title, weigh its core qualities, and then gather
other pieces from your repertoire list that share those qualities.
Seek out qualities that will be relevant to people, trigger empathy, and
help you provide exclusive experiences for your audiences.

3. Start with a Concept

All sorts of conceptual frameworks can spark concert programs e.g.,
music inspired by nature, love, time, or events.
You might begin with a concept that speaks to you and your
prospective listeners, and then see whether your existing repertoire
allows for constructing a program built on that theme; you might
also learn one or two new titles that align with your concept.
Regardless of the processes you use to develop programs, when
you craft powerful ones and present them publicly, you reap the
benefits of expressing your true self, growing your skills, establishing
your artistic identity, and connecting with audiences who can support
your work far into the future.

http://musiciansway.com/blog/2012/01/7-tips-for-designing-concertprograms/

1. Know Your Audience

2. Choose Music You Can Handle
3. Begin with Welcoming Music
4. Vary the Energy
5. Indulge and Surprise
People expectations with them to concerts, which are influenced by
your marketing strategies. Memorable concerts, though, take
audiences beyond what they can envision. So, create expectations,
and surpass them.

6. End Strongly
7. Evaluate

http://musiciansway.com/blog/2014/10/3-traits-of-successful-concertprograms/
1. Relevance: How would target audiences connect culturally and
intellectually with the program content?
2. Empathy: How would target audiences connect emotionally with
the program content?
3. Exclusivity: In what ways do the program and presentation provide
experiences not readily available elsewhere?

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/20/arts/music/20tomm.html
Yet what exactly constitutes an adventurous program? The term is
thrown around by critics who routinely prod stodgy American
orchestras to be more challenging. Mr. Morris is probably right that in
the public mind adventurous has become code for contemporary
music. But the issue is more complicated.
Like Mr. Morris, Mr. Gilbert emphasized that adventurous programming
should not be equated with contemporary music. Programming is
about making interesting combinations, he said, not about tallying
up the number of contemporary works and saying at the end of the
year, Look, we did 25 new pieces this season.
http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayFulltext?
type=1&fid=9128750&jid=TEM&volumeId=68&issueId=267&aid=912
8747
Once the norm for a concert to feature 8-15 works, with most of
them being new. (William Weber).
In the first half of the century alone, programs went from 80%
new compositions to 80% old.
Concert promoters such as the violinist John Ella (1802 1888)
included new works when they were satisfied that the piece in
question reached the highest echelons of quality, but otherwise

new music came to be dependent on specialist organisations,

even in countries such as Britain, which did not have a strong
avant-garde style of composition, such as was associated with
the continent.
The standard account of music history claims that the technical
advance of composers merely out-stripped that of audiences,
leading to the existence of an avant garde: a view propagated
by many composers from Beethoven to Boulez and beyond.
To build the audience of the future, classical institutions should
make more of unexpected bridges between genres. (Alex Ross
quote).
Many more people will happily watch Stanley Kubricks 2001: A
Space Odyssey, and even comment favourably on the
soundtrack, than would choose to go and hear the works in
question in the concert hall. WHAT CAN WE DO ABOUT THIS
THROUGH PROGRAMMING? IS PROGRAMMING A CONCERT
PROGRAMMING AN AUDIENCE?
A more problematic contradiction in the presentation of new
music is between the vitality of contemporary musical expression
and the alienating customs of the venues in which it has
traditionally been presented.
o Different branches of new music benefit from different
forms of presentation.
o There are two primary ways of approaching this tension:
both of great utility to the future of contemporary music.
First is a conspicuous vogue for moving classical
music out into the world, to where new audiences are
or might be, exploring venues that are either neutral
or more redolent of positive associations for the
target groups.
Second are the various initiatives intended to dispel
concert hall stigmas and get new particularly young
audiences in.
This is one of the primary activities of the
many excellent outreach departments attached
to ensembles, whose existence is often a
condition of the public funding those groups
receive.
One of the crucial differences between most of
the London Sinfoniettas repertoire and that of
a pop festival is that it requires silence to be
enjoyed at its best. Clearly, this is a difficult
issue, ostensibly at odds with encouraging
audience mobility and all those related, noisy
freedoms.

o Creating Voluntary Silence

What must fall away is the notion of classical music as a reliable
conduit for consoling beauty a kind of spa treatment for tired
souls. Such an attitude undercuts not only 20th-century
composers but also the classics it purports to cherish ... Listeners
who become accustomed to Berg and Ligeti will find new
dimensions in Mozart and Beethoven. So, too, will performers.
For too long, we have placed the classical masters in a gilded
cage. It is time to let them out. (Alex Ross quote).
Orchestra as a non-flexible musical institution.
Value of pre-performance talks.

IN CLASS

Thematic continuity is something to be strived for, but creates the

need to be wary of monotony.
Every piece on a program should be important.
Should have two interesting halves: dont repeat the first half on the
second half.

We are a museum as an art form: no one will ever know some

pieces/composers exist unless we exhibit them.
*You must believe in every piece* (conviction)
Audience should be the last consideration for non-professional
performance.
Limitations:
Length (55 minutes of actual music = 1:30 minute concert)
Will it work in the venue?
Instrumentation?
Budget? (rentals)
Deck of cards analogy.

Fake limitiations:

In education: Will the parents like the music? Will the kids like the
music?

List of pieces:

Aces:

Jacks:

High numbers:

Low numbers:

Jokers: