Wednesday, November 26, 2014

Learning from Soccer: Buying the Scarf

Two of my favorite local institutions are in trouble.  I am referring, of course, to the Atlanta Silverbacks and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra.  Although they both play on Saturday night, there are some differences.  For one, the Silverbacks are a minor league soccer team and the ASO is a major league orchestra; the ASO wins Grammys, and I've never seen the Silverbacks win a game.  I've gone to the ASO, off and on, ever since I moved to Atlanta and I first went to a Silverbacks game a couple of months ago.  I learned about the doubts about the Silverbacks' future near the end of their season, and the lockout delayed the start of the ASO's season.  Both organizations are losing money; the Silverbacks are owned by some guys who have been cutting costs and still haven't turned a profit, and the symphony is under the Woodruff Arts Center board which has been cutting costs but actually is in charge of a not-for-profit entity.  The Symphony has terrible brochure -- whose idea was this terrifying naked flying nymph motif? -- and as far as I know the Silverbacks do not.  (I just included that last part because I have wanted to say something about the terrifying naked flying nymphs for a while, and this really was my first opportunity to do so.)

I started going to the symphony when I was in medical school.  I bought a series subscription to open rehearsals, and sometimes splurged and got tickets to concerts.  So it's natural for us to go to the ASO; that's something we do.  But not everyone goes, even as much as we do, and that's the rub for the ASO.  There should not be empty seats in Symphony Hall.  How do you grow the audience?  (Probably not with terrifying naked flying nymphs.)   But I will give them credit for trying something new last season, with the first Friday concerts that are earlier in the evening, only an hour long, and less expensive.  I've heard that other orchestras have tried late night concerts with a more club-type atmosphere.  But they really need to fill the seats in Symphony Hall with full-fare ticket buyers.

Which brings me back to the Silverbacks.  I had never been to a professional soccer game until a couple of months ago.  I am not very knowledgeable about soccer (I still don't understand what "offsides" means) and I have never been that much of a sports fan.  But once I went I wanted to go back, The first game we went to, we ended up sitting behind Terminus Legion, one of the supporter groups, and that made it lots of fun to be there, even though we lost the game.  (The Ottawa Fury ended up with six yellow cards - not exactly what we expect from Canadians, I might add.)  On our way out that night we bought Atlanta Silverbacks scarves, and later both Iain and I joined Terminus Legion.  We came early to games and joined Terminus Legion's tailgate party, and Iain sat with them on the front row and played the drum.  I sat a few rows back from the group but joined in the chants (my personal favorite -- after a questionable call, "I'm blind - I'm deaf - I want to be a ref.")

A week ago on Sunday there was a fundraiser for the symphony musicians at Moe's at Ansley Mall.  This had been scheduled before the lockout ended, and ended up being more celebratory than originally expected.  Throughout the afternoon and into the evening musicians and members of the chorus were there, and recordings of the symphony were playing on the sound system.  (I've never heard Mahler in a restaurant before, I don't think.)  This was right after the first concerts since the lockout had ended, and we were so glad we had been at the Symphony on Saturday night.  A long talk with a violinist from the neighborhood, who said she'd seen Tom and me in the audience the night before, and how glad she was to see us there.  She told me that they were working on a new piece by Richard Prior, a local composer who is on the faculty at Emory, and they'd be playing it in a program the following weekend with Beethoven's 5th, and we should come.  I bought one of the black T-shirts that said "ATL Symphony Musicians" that had been ubiquitous during the lockout.  


After that conversation, I wanted to go to the next concert.  Tom had something else he needed to do, but Caroline was home for the weekend, and she and I went.  It was wonderful. 

I have been thinking about how one soccer game made me a Silverbacks fan, and wondering if something about the symphony experience could change to make it more likely that a first-time symphony goer would -- figuratively speaking == buy the ASO scarf after attending their first concert.  Somehow, I thought, the experience needed to be more social and more participatory.  But maybe it wasn't the symphony experience that needed to change, but my engagement with it.  What made it more social and participatory, for me, was a conversation with a violinist at Moe's about the next concert.  I did buy the T-shirt, although it's not exactly symphony wear.

And the scarf?  The symphony now has supporter groups, too, and one of them is selling a scarf.  Mine is ordered, and I'll wear it to the next concert.

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