Symphony using visual arts to lure new concertgoers

For the past several years, symphony orchestras across the United States have been finding themselves in a precarious situation, not unlike the one they faced in the 1980s. Dwindling audiences and diminishing financial resources have been plaguing them once again. Symphonies are struggling to survive, and many have resorted to trying out something that, for them, is an unconventional effort to remain viable.

Smaller, younger orchestras are hurting the most, but older, long-established organizations have also been affected. The Chicago Symphony, for one, has been operating in the red for a couple of seasons, and although its deficit certainly doesn't threaten its existence — and is in all probability a short-term problem — it's one that the organization is not thrilled to face.

There have also been quite a few casualties among the nation's orchestras, the most recent being the demise of the Florida Philharmonic earlier this year. According to Utah Symphony & Opera CEO Anne Ewers, eight American orchestras have filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy since September 2002. "We have to find new and different ways of doing things," Ewers said, in order to reverse this trend.

A number of orchestras have initiated steps that, in effect, reinvent, or at the very least reinvigorate, symphony concerts. The hope is to attract newer audiences while retaining longtime subscribers.

Since Ewers took over the helm of the merged Utah Symphony & Opera organization in July 2002, she has made it a point to redefine concerts, in part by adding a visual element. Last season, audiences were given a foretaste of what to expect when the Utah Symphony, under music director Keith Lockhart, performed Stravinsky's suite from "Petrouchka" with Japanese bunraku puppetry. This season, the orchestra will present four visually enhanced concerts.

"What is happening in the symphonic world is that subscriptions are down," Ewers said, "and the question is, why?"

Ewers feels traditional concerts have lost their appeal to a large segment of the population. "Today's audiences are not as focused on the symphony, and that is because we have become a very visual society, thanks to MTV and other things. So if there is a way, when appropriate, to add an honest enhancement to a program that doesn't take away from the musical experience, then I think it's important for us to do that."