In Friday’s (5/29) Chronicle of Philanthropy, Rebecca Koenig speaks with Ricky O’Bannon, a journalist who since July 2014 has served as the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra’s “embedded reporter,” a position “created to help the nonprofit tell stories of interest to supporters…. O’Bannon reflected on his year with the orchestra…. ‘Our goal is to try to do two to three stories a week.… The distribution is primarily through social media…. Twenty-five percent [of the content] relates to the orchestra. But I don’t see it as a direct ‘try to sell this concert.’ … If I write about classical music in a way that interests readers and gets them excited about classical music, that meets both our needs…. After the Baltimore riots, I tried to write a piece looking at places where music was in the city in the week following…. I think orchestras are very much aware of a lot of these macro problems as far as seeking new audiences, younger audiences, and diversity…. Orchestras have to go beyond their traditional concert hall walls and find a way to be in the community.”
Posted June 2, 2015
