A Pilot Study: A Descriptive Study of the Musical Backgrounds of Orchestral Concert Attendees with an Emphasis on Past Participation in School Music Ensembles

Texas Music Educators Association. 7900 Centre Park Drive, Austin, TX 78754. Tel: 512-452-0710; Fax: 512-451-9213; Web site: http://www.tmea.org

Y

10

Music Education; Music Activities; Audiences; Participation; Classical Music; Musicians; Music Appreciation; Age Groups; Adults

Texas (Dallas); Texas (Fort Worth)

2379-9021

Improving concert attendance is a concern for most classical music organizations, both for continued financial stability and for artistic fulfillment. According to a statistical report from the League of American Orchestras (2015), slightly more than a third of orchestras' total revenue comes from concert sales. Good concert attendance can also benefit orchestras in garnering other sources of funding, such as government funding and corporate sponsorship. Yet in recent years, concert attendance has decreased. The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) (2013) reported in its Survey of Public Participation in the Arts (SPPA) that the percentage of US adults who attended at least one classical music performance in a year decreased from 9.3 percent in 2008 to 8.8 percent in 2012. These percentages are both lower than the 13.0 percent reported in 1982, the first year of reporting by the SPPA. Concerns over this decreasing rate of classical concert attendance have prompted many studies on the various factors that affect concert attendance, one such being age. While the SPPA reports suggest that adults in the oldest age groups have the highest rates of classical concert attendance, Toma and Meads (2007) state that, in mid-sized cities, adults from ages 18 to 24 and from ages 35 to 49 have increased rates of concert attendance, with decreased rates of attendance for adults from ages 25 to 34. The NEA's (2015) General Social Survey (GSS) likewise found that overall rates of attendance at all arts events are the highest among individuals aged 18 to 24 and 35 to 44. These numbers from the GSS should be placed in context, however, as the GSS asked participants about all performing and visual arts, unlike the SPPA, which limited its survey to specific genres of theater, dance, and music. In addition to these numbers from the NEA, a study involving ticket buyers to a major symphony in Australia found that among both subscribers and single-ticket buyers, approximately half began attending orchestral concerts regularly before age 35 (Boyle, 2007). Despite these many studies related to classical music audiences and their backgrounds, few studies have described how much of classical concert attendees' early exposure to classical music as provided in school programs as compared to avenues outside of school. The purpose of this study was to gather information about the musical background of current orchestral concert attendees, and to determine if these attendees perceive influences or relationships between their experiences in school music programs and choices to attend classical concerts. The current designed served as a pilot test to determine reliability for a larger study to be completed in the future.

ERIC

2019

EJ1205444