In a front-page story in Monday’s (1/13) Washington Post, Anne Midgette writes, “By leaving the Kennedy Center’s walled-in arts preserve to offer a railroad-themed program in [Union Station’s] cavernous East Hall, the National Symphony Orchestra is part of a national trend.… Performing arts organizations from Baltimore to Chicago to Detroit are trying to reach new audiences—by coming to them. Hence a program such as ‘NSO in Your Neighborhood,’ which brought the orchestra to the Capitol Hill and H Street NE area for 50 free performances in schools, community centers, homeless shelters, coffee shops—and the train station.… According to Rita Shapiro, the orchestra’s executive director, … the two main reasons people attended the concerts, which ranged from a quartet of violinists gamely playing for an audience of restless toddlers in the basement of Ebenezers Coffeehouse … to full orchestral performances at the Atlas Performing Arts Center, were ‘because it was free’ and ‘because you came to my neighborhood.’ … The Philadelphia Orchestra, the Cleveland Orchestra and the Detroit Symphony Orchestra are just a few of the orchestras that present neighborhood concerts.… Jesse Rosen, the president and CEO of the League of American Orchestras, said [such residencies were about] ‘creating public value, creating greater accessibility and creating more varied ways for musicians to express themselves.’ ”
Symphony magazine’s “Close to Home” article examined this topic in its Summer 2013 issue.
Posted January 15, 2014
