Karla Encalada-Falconí*
5 ACUMULACIÓN POR DESPOSESIÓN E INTERSECCIONALIDAD EN LA AMAZONÍA ECUATORIANA: ANÁLISIS DEL PROYECTO
In the dataset, there were five participants for whom attending a populist concert at the CBSO was their first experience of live orchestral music: Emma, Gordon,
George, and Ben and Alison (a married couple). With very little knowledge of classical music, they are proof that populist concerts can succeed in attracting CANAs. Within this group, there were two distinct routes to attendance, both of which were connected to venue: Emma and Gordon found out about CBSO concerts by picking up marketing leaflets as they walked through Symphony Hall, whereas George, Ben and Alison crossed over to orchestral concerts from other non-classical events at the same venue.
What made you go to that first concert?
Emma It was very accidental! […] When I first moved down here, I was spending the weekends, sort of, wandering around Birmingham, learning the area, and then you stumble across something that’s like ‘Symphony Hall’. There are brochures!
Gordon I was made redundant about three and a half years ago. […] Suddenly, I was faced with a lot of spare time on my hands and I – only by chance – I must've wandered in or picked up a leaflet or something.
For Emma, coming to the CBSO was part of getting to know a new city. Having grown up in a rural area, she wanted to make the most of the opportunities around her in Birmingham. She began looking for alternative things to do with her evenings because ‘going out to bars’ on a Friday night was getting ‘boring’. Initially, her attendance was therefore connected to the day of the week; she was specifically looking for activities to do on a Friday night. The significance of scheduling populist concerts on a Friday night is explored in Chapter 11.1.
Like Emma, Gordon found out about populist concerts through marketing in
Symphony Hall when he was looking for new things to do with his time. For Gordon, however, this had less to do with broadening his horizons and more about finding ways to occupy himself having been made redundant. The first concert he came to appealed to him because it featured Scarlett Strallen, who he knew as a famous singer in the West End. Even though Gordon had never been to an orchestral concert before, the artist and repertoire (West End songs) provided a point of familiarity. While this was not a CBSO concert, I have included his account in this analysis because it was still a populist concert at Symphony Hall which subsequently made him aware of the venue, of the CBSO, and of other populist programming. Although Emma and Gordon’s routes to attendance were shaped by their unique circumstances, there are two points of common ground. Firstly, they both found out about the concert by picking up a leaflet at Symphony Hall. This suggests that the physical presence of venue is significant in raising awareness of performances. The
hall is located in the West side of Birmingham city centre, housed in the same building as the International Convention Centre. There is a walkway which divides the two halves and acts as a thoroughfare between the offices and restaurants of Brindley Place, and Centenary Square, the new Library of Birmingham and the main shopping district. It is used by hundreds of people every day as a short cut between the two areas. As Symphony Hall’s resident orchestra, the CBSO has permanent advertising in the walkway with banners, flyers and brochures on display. Emma and Gordon’s routes to attendance suggest that the public accessibility of Symphony Hall plays a strong role in creating awareness of the CBSO amongst non-attenders. The second factor that links Emma and Gordon’s first attendances is that both were experiencing big upheaval in their lives: Gordon was made redundant; his
motivation to go to a concert came from having more spare time and finding new ways of filling it. Emma had moved to Birmingham for work and was looking for alternative things to do with her evenings. Concert-going therefore began as their lives were being re-structured. This was accompanied by a change of priorities: with more free time, arts events moved higher on Gordon’s list of priorities. Similarly, Emma’s priorities were shifting as she became bored of going out to bars every week. Previous literature has shown that attendance changes drastically at different life stages, notably decreasing when people have children, and increasing when they retire (Andreasen & Belk, 1980; Belk & Andreasen, 1982; DCMS, 2015b; NEA, 2015). Emma and Gordon’s comments highlight the importance of the junctures between stages of their life; it suggests that people may be more open-minded to trying new cultural activities at important turning-points.
Emma’s first concert attendance was also driven by a desire to take advantage of the cultural offerings of the city, a sentiment echoed by several participants.
Emma It seems a shame to move somewhere where you’ve got so many different theatres and not go and see things! Where I grew up we had one little local theatre and you couldn’t get to anywhere big. […] So now it’s like: ‘I’m two train stations down, I have got no excuse!’
Jackie We moved into Birmingham city centre probably about six/eight years ago, and because it’s on the doorstep, it seems criminal not to come! So we probably come a lot more frequently than we would if we had to travel.
Julian [Both me and my wife] are musically ignorant […] because of awful, awful teaching at school, which put me off classical music for decades […] CBSO was there, a world-renowned orchestra, we’re fortunate enough to have disposable income and I suppose it was a different sort of cultural experience, if that doesn’t sound too pompous.
For Emma, Jackie and Julian, the sense of privilege in living so close to Symphony Hall and the CBSO has overcome anxieties around classical music. Julian was a CANA until he started attending concerts around 20 years ago. He had been put off classical music at school until, like Emma, he started looking for alternative ways to spend his time and felt that he should take advantage of living so close to the CBSO. Jackie already had an interest in classical music, having been introduced to it at school, however she had not been to a concert in many years until she moved to Birmingham city centre. All three comments centre on the idea of being privileged to live in proximity of Symphony Hall. Emma and Jackie’s comments have a sense of obligation to make the most of the opportunities they now have and, perhaps, that many other people do not have. Living near to Symphony Hall and being aware of the international reputation of the CBSO therefore overcame their misgivings about live classical music and made it a higher priority in their lives. There is undoubtedly a regional dimension to these comments; the idea of being lucky to live close to a concert hall is unlikely to resonate with arts attenders in London, where there are a number of venues in close proximity. While this finding may therefore not be generalisable to London audiences, similar feelings of pride and privilege may be found amongst audiences for concerts in other regional cities.
The Symphony Hall was also pivotal in George, Ben and Alison’s decision to attend. For these three participants, populist concerts have gradually come to feature in their arts consumption via attending other events at Symphony Hall.
How did you start going to classical concerts?
George It was pop music first, because I hadn’t really seen classical since I went with school to the old Town Hall, that was really the last time. [I’ve] seen Deacon Blue three or four times in [Symphony Hall]. But then you have a look at the programme, and thought ‘ooh, I quite fancy that [classical concert]. Quite fancy that’.
Alison We’re members […] of Symphony Hall and Town Hall and then they send us a programme, so we just look and see.
For George, Ben and Alison, attending non-classical events at Symphony Hall was the catalyst for their first orchestral concert. This was partly due to increased awareness of events at the hall; they received marketing material from the venue promoting a range of different events, which brought populist concerts to their attention. Crossing over from non-classical to orchestral concerts also seems to have been facilitated by their love of the venue. George described how he loves being in Symphony Hall, deliberately arriving ‘at least 20 minutes early’ to soak in the atmosphere. This suggests that the concert venue is an important factor in George’s
important for Ben and Alison, as Ben is in a wheelchair which places restrictions on where he and Alison can go to concerts. They know that Symphony Hall is easily accessible and the staff, ‘accommodating’. This suggests that being comfortable in a venue can reduce the risk associated with trying a new type of event.
Perhaps Symphony Hall encourages crossover from pop to classical concerts more than other venues. The formality of the hall, with fixed seating on four levels, all of which face the stage, means that regardless of the nature of the music, audiences are limited in how much they can move around or dance. The difference in etiquette between a pop concert and classical performances is consequently much less
extreme at Symphony Hall than in pop music venues. The venue may therefore have conditioned audience members to a more formal and non-participatory form of audience engagement, making crossover from pop to classical performances less of a culture shock.
The experiences of these five CANAs not only highlight the importance of venue in the route to attendance, but also suggest that populist programmes can succeed in attracting new CANAs. Nevertheless, it is difficult to draw conclusions about classical music audiences at large from the experiences of five attenders. Indeed, these five participants may not be particularly representative of the concert-going population; they seem unusually open-minded towards trying new cultural experiences, as I discuss in Chapter 8.3. In addition, ticket sales data from the orchestra show that, in the 2014/15 season, 79% of populist newcomers had not since returned to a second concert. 14% returned to a populist concert, 5% attended a core programme, and the remaining 2% engaged with other strands such as Christmas or Family concerts. This suggests that while populist concerts can
function as audience development tools, they are only effective for a small minority. My ticket analysis was carried out in December 2015, four months after the 2014/15 season had ended. It may therefore underestimate the level of re-attendance
because newcomers may yet come back to a second concert. In addition, I have only analysed newcomers’ first two concerts, and it may take more time to move from populist to core concerts. Nevertheless, in the data set, there were no CANAs who had made the complete transition from populism to core programmes, as all were still regularly attending populist concerts. These interviews and the ticket sales analysis raise questions about the time-scale of audience development. How long are newcomers expected to take to find a route to core attendance? Participants such as Anthony are still exclusively attending populist concerts years after their first
concert. Tracking individual attenders over multiple seasons is beyond the resources of most arts organisations, meaning ticket data may not be the best way of
monitoring audience development. In addition, if no populist attenders had transferred to core programmes, what are the routes to core concerts? The data presented in this section has shown the complexity of assessing the success of audience development initiatives.