We Need To Do Something...and quick!

 This post is about children and how to get them more inclined to concerts and the orchestra. For teens, that is a little more difficult and I will offer my observations about that soon. 

Yes, the BSO does a lot for the younger BSYO by offering free or reduced tuitions and now hosting a side by side concert  in the first half of 2025, but we simply cannot rest on our laurels if we want to keep our beloved BSO a true community orchestra for generations to come and hire the best local musicians. Other orchestras around the state and in New England are having an even rougher time, so we really need to focus our attention to the young musicians and those who have musical tendencies yet to surface. But in order to do that, we need to make sure we HAVE local musicians in the future, and that can only be done by nipping the issue of musical decline in the butt. 

I expounded on the hurdles many families face when trying to get their children involved in playing an instrument, from beginning to continuing, in today's world in my last post. Now I would like to say a few words about the adult version of the same topic.

 I have noticed over the years a decline in interest in youth orchestras around the state of Maine as well as many pro orchestras. Although the Bangor Symphony Orchestra do great things and are a marvel to watch and listen to, I feel there can be much more done to captivate younger audiences, entice a wider variety of concert goers and especially to get children attending their remarkable concerts.  

We need to look ahead, and quickly! This post is by no means a castigation of this Maine institution. They reach out to the community more than many other pro orchestras. I am simply going to give my two cents worth regarding how we can better capture a new audience and sustain our proud musical culture here in Central Maine and other orchestras around the state that are having a very rough time with concert attendance and finding musicians. 

Just the same as restaurants and other businesses do, they must bring the children in because with children, are parents. Not only will this bring new blood into the fold, but it will help solidify the future of this great institution. 

My son Thomas is a 6th generation Maine violinist, with his grandfather and great grandfather attending the New England Conservatory of Music and the Boston Conservatory. They taught violin in Maine since the early 1920s and have had their own orchestras and performed with other orchestras around New England. I can only hope that my son will continue on with this legacy and perform with the BSO as soon as he has finished his musical schooling. In the meantime. I hope the BSO orchestra is still going strong when it is his turn.

Here are just a few ideas right off the top of my head as I sit hear and write my post.

Host interactive concerts. 

This can be easily done in a myriad of ways that is fun, exciting , informative and engaging to children, and thusly to the parent. Have question and answer sessions from children. Bring them up on stage, have them try an instrument, ask a question or two, ask if a certain performer can play their favorite childrens song or even play a popular children's song and see what child can identify the song. 

Turn the lights down low, have the orchestra play a simple song from a chldrens show or movie while wearing glow in the dark bracelets, necklaces, hats, head bands, ....anything the glows in the dark and hand the same out to any child who attends. Have the conductor tell the children to wave their hands a certain way or pretend to conduct the orchestra themselves while they are playing an elementary song. Let the kids be part of the concert they are attending.

Incorporate a singalong. We all know children not only love to sing and dance, but when they think they are part of a pro orchestra...well, they will not only be exciting to them but may foster an interest in an instrument.

Use video cameras and wide screens to show closeups of the children singing, dancing, playing an instrument. Let the children see for themselves how much fun it would be to be onstage.

Have more themed concerts.

Have a fairy tale concert where children dress up as someone or something in the theme of the night. Have a movie themed concert and do the same thing. Popular childrens video games r  zoo animals would be a great fit as well. Before each of these themed concerts, have a fun hour before the concert with pre-show activities relating to the theme of the evenings concert. Or have a pre concert workshop to allow children to see the instruments and talk to the musicians on a one to one basis. Heck, even have a pre concert face painting room for children where they can have their faces painted in the evenings theme. Have a craft making room available after the concert so they can make something to take home with them after the concert. 

If, for example, you will be doing a Peter and the Wolf concert, have the conductor or announcer read a portion of the story with light background music to enhance the story or read, then play, read more, then play more....

Use Creative Marketing Ideas

You do not need to hire expensive marketing consultants. Hand out simple and colorful brochures of a certain childrens themed concert in schools, the local Y, museums...anywhere that children congregate. For example, have a Halloween Themed Concert where children can attend wearing their favorite costume, but do not forget to have the orchestra and conductor do the same. The whole premise is to show children that the performers onstage are simply one of them, just a little more grown up. 

Have a superhero night where children can dress up as their favorite super heroes and the orchestra can play the theme songs from Superman or any superhero movie or sound track. This would work equally well using Harry Potter, Ghostbusters.....the list is endless. Have a disco night with children dressed up in disco clothing.

Have a scavenger hunt by handing out simple fliers at the beginning of the concerts and let the children go on stage to find an instrument that is shown on their flyer. Then find out the names of them, having the performer of that instrument play a few bars in order to show the children what it sounds like. 

Have a contest either on promotional material before the concert to chose a guest, child conductor for one song, or a couple of winners to conduct a few minutes at a time. This would be sooo thrilling to these children.

Remember that children's attentions spans are short comparatively so keep the concert no longer than an hour or so but during that time, make it engaging and go from one experience to another without spending too much time on  one particular element of the concert. 

The music and program needs to be simple and inviting. Don't tell the kids you are going to play J.C. Bach Symphony in G minor, Opus 6 No. 6 because that means absolutely nothing to them. They simply cannot relate to something like that, no matter how much you hype it up.

I could go on and on but because even some adults have short attention spans, I will end this post post haste. The message I am trying to spit out is...

We need to do something quick or orchestras will continue to get smaller and smaller as the years go by and there are simply too many ways to counteract this decline if we just quit thinking of concerts as boring and too time consuming for children. The answers to these issues are so simple I just don't understand why the adage "If there is a will there is a way" isn't utilized more often. 

If I can come up with all these ideas simply by sitting here and typing in an hour or so, imagine what could happen with the entire board of directors, conductor and musicians and marketing people from community orchestras can come up with.

Musicians in Trouble

....and then there were none. 

 The days of children picking up an instrument at an early age are slowly waning. I am not talking about band or the child who teaches themselves on the electric or acoustic guitar because they want to teach themselves from YouTube videos how to play like Eddie Van Halen or Hendrix. I am talking about the violin, viola, cello, bass or even the piano. 

When I was a child and picked up the violin in the later 60s, there were so many children who played in school orchestra that the program was at capacity every year. We were able to find an instrument of our choice quite easily and cheaply. Lessons were given at a very reasonable price and the added expense did not alter our standard of living(which was low to begin with at times). 

But over the years, at least here in the U.S., the cost to a parent to be able to afford an instrument, pay for private lessons and keep their child interested has seriously declined. Sure, there are some things that we just cannot control and one of them is the advent and soaring popularity of electronics. Most every child has a PlayStation or x-box and at roughly $20 a month subscription, they can have fun and play with their friends online at the drop of a hat. FAR cheaper then it would cost to rent a violin and to take lessons, not to mention paying for music camps, joining a community orchestra and paying for lessons.

This post is not to diminish a teachers role in charging for lessons. I get it! They spent exorbitant money to get a degree in music and need to earn a living as well...I truly get it! But that does not mean that 'different times require different measures' if we are going to keep music alive and orchestras sustainable. 

Private lessons cost anywhere from $45 an hour up to, and beyond, $100 an hour. There aren't many families that can afford that. Let me give you an example of what I am trying to say. I am a chef. If it cost me $30,000 to get a culinary degree and if I were going to use the same logic, I would charge $75 an hour because "I have to pay for my education". Noooo, that is now how it works. I go into my chosen field knowing that it is going to take years to pay it back and I would have to work and get paid no different than any other career. I do what I can in my chosen field. I don't think to myself I am any better then the chef who worked their way up the ladder the hard way to become a chef. 

Over the past couple of years, my 13 year old violinist son and I have reached out numerous times to help those families whose child wants to play an instrument but simply cannot afford it. We have offered to teach them free of charge for the first number of months to make sure their child is seriously interested. Not only does this help a family's financial burden but this offer also helps a child learn with another child(my son) and in turn, makes it more interesting and fun instead of sitting in your room at home practicing by yourself. THAT is boring and not very conducive in fostering attention or interest. I am with my son at every home practice. Even it I were not a violinist, I would still sit down with him every day and do everything I could to make him feel as though his practice was not only important, but he was doing a great job.

I will never forget a former teacher of his who came highly recommended. He was loving her for a while then all of the sudden, on week, he came out of practice and I could tell he was saddened about something. I mean he looks really upset. I found out why. His teacher came out with him and her first words were "I did not see any improvement this week at all". I just didn't know what to say. Is she kidding me? Nope, those were her exact words...at right in front of Thomas. I was upset to the point of wanting to say something to her but I did not. He has practices at least 2 hours a day for 6 days a week and just because he did not show improvement that one week, she needs to make sure he hears her say that to me? Tell him what he improved on rather than embarrass him like that. Within a week we found a new teacher and she has been so positive for his growth and are still with her today. 

Our offer of free lessons has been accepted numerous times but have not continued for a variety of reasons, some beyond a family's control while others saying negative things about the schools music teacher and the added expense of a violin.  The one good thing is you can rent a violin at a very very reasonable price from your local music shop. There are schools that also have instruments that belong to the school as well and you can use them free of charge. This is a great beginning but I am afraid that is where kindness ends many times. I have seen time and time again where the stringed players are mixed in with band members, first year string players are practicing with multi-year brass players and the complete lack of attention from the band/string teacher in order to foster a childs interest in strings. Now if this were decades ago, I would understand because there were literally dozens and dozens of students playing instruments but today(at least in the district my son attends), there are under a dozen. 

Community youth orchestra's are declining at a rapid pace, worse then school orchestras. You would not believe how many students have no idea about the local community orchestra because it is not offered by their teacher at school. Every music teacher worth their weight should be telling every music student about their community orchestra. For example, here in Bangor, Maine. Every school district in the surrounding areas who have a music program should be telling them about the Bangor Symphony's Youth Orchestra's. There are 3 of them at varying levels of discipline, from the very beginner to the more advanced. Yet after speaking to parents, they had no idea. Shameful!!!!

Now having said that, the cost of joining a community orchestra, such as the BSYO is very very agreeable to many families. There are even scholarships and help with the expense. Kudo's to them for providing this but if students and children do not know about it, what good does it do? The only thing I would change about the BSYO is to put a crazy amount of effort into reaching out to each and every school orchestra and band....before it is too late. The cost would be minimal but so well worth that minute cost and effort. There is no reason(if a music teacher is truly a lover of music and wants it to continue) each and every music teacher does not talk to the school children about this. They should work as hard as the student to foster growth and excitement. In just the past 10 years, many youth orchestra's are not even close to the numbers once seen. And please don't give me the Covid excuse because that is just what it is, an excuse.

I understand that in many foreign countries, there are programs set up to help parents with the cost of getting their child to play an instrument. It is a shame that we don't see something like that here in the U.S..

To put this all in a nutshell, we need to change with the times if we truly love music and we are in it for the devotion to our craft and the future of it. 

Lets make it affordable for young people.

Let's get the word out to every single school and tell students there are more opportunities for them outside the school.

Let's get school music teachers to actually help encourage students to "spread their wings".

Let's get the community involved in the child musicians. If half the effort went into this as it does with the adult pro's, you will be ensuring future orchestra's are full of talented musicians. 

We need private teachers to offer reduced or even free lessons to just 1 student. Come on, giving 1 hour a week to a student in need would make such a difference. If my 13 year old and I can do it, anyone can. 

If you are a teacher, give a little, you will get so much more back. 

If you are business owner or one who could help a child, consider sponsoring a child fora just one year in the BSYO. It costs just $300 for 2 seasons and boy oh boy, will that make a difference.

Something needs to be done because if not, this decline will continue and it truly will not be long before more youth orchestra's will shut down or have to increase their costs simply because of lack of enrollment. And this lack of enrollment was something that could have been avoided in the first place.

Such simple steps but above all, change with the times people.