More on the Symphony and Soccer

It was the weekend before last when I saw the posts on Save Our Symphony's Facebook page about Cameron Carpenter's guest appearance with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra.  If you missed it, Cameron Carpenter is young organist who plays a digital organ that fits in a trailer truck that he takes on tour.  It sounded like it was going to be a good concert, so I decided to go, even though I couldn't find anyone to go with me.

I'm glad I did. Mr. Carpenter is a great performer but he doesn't look like the usual visiting soloist, with his mohawk and rhinestoned shoes.  He was the featured soloist in Poulenc's Organ Concerto, and then played the Overture to Candide as an encore; there's a video on line of him playing this piece that pretty well captures the flavor of the performance.  And -- this was my favorite part -- instead of disappearing after the intermission the way every other visiting soloist I ever have seen has done, he was back after the intermission for Saint-Saens' Symphony No. 3 as a member of the ensemble.  The organ console was moved off to the edge of the stage, and in spite of the haircut and the shoes, he was just another musician, playing with the ASO.

Last fall, while the Symphony was locked out, there were demonstrations and pickets and musicians' association-organized concerts that kept the issue visible, and kept the pressure on the Woodruff Arts Center to actually find a solution.  Although I don't know who all the players were (no pun intended), the information I got about what was going on came from the musicians' association and Save Our Symphony Atlanta.  Since then, most of the news I've gotten about the Symphony season is from SOS Atlanta via Facebook.  It's a supporter group, and like any good supporter group, they now have a scarf for sale.

Speaking of scarves, the last time I wrote about the ASO, I also wrote about the Atlanta Silverbacks, Atlanta's minor league soccer team, which was also facing an uncertain future last fall.  The Silverbacks have supporter groups too, and when it looked like the team might not be back this year, they all got together and organized a demonstration in Centennial Park. The team owners wanted out and in December, the North American Soccer League announced that it had bought the team.  In the announcement, NASL Commissioner Bill Peterson said, “Silverbacks fans are among the most passionate in the league, and they deserve a committed ownership group that will run the team at a high level for years to come.”

Under NASL's leadership, there's a new coach and a bunch of new players.  They did lose a favorite player, midfielder Kwadwo Poku, to the MLS (just like the ASO lost their Principal Bassonist to the Chicago Symphony).  But NASL's doing a good job of rebuilding the roster, as best I can tell, and certainly is doing a good job of marketing -- otherwise, I wouldn't know any of this.

How's the marketing going for the ASO?  Not so well.  What I know about the symphony mostly comes from SOS Atlanta.  When I tried to buy a ticket on the ASO website to the concert featuring Cameron Carpenter, I kept getting error messages, and when I tried again, the seat I'd just tried unsuccessfully to purchase would be shown as unavailable.  Finally I gave up and called the box office.  The person there said they'd have to charge me a service fee for a telephone purchase but there were plenty of seats and there isn't an extra charge for an in-person, at-the-box-office purchase.  So that's what I did.  This does not seem like a very good way to sell tickets.  Then, there's the matter of the terrifying naked flying nymph brochure, which pretty much speaks for itself.  SOS Atlanta posted a strong statement in late January as an open letter to the ASO Board about the marketing problems, including website issues and how social media is and is not being used.

Of course, there could be a reason it's so terrible.  The Woodruff Arts Center is currently recruiting a Vice President of Marketing and Communications (thanks to my neighbor Sarah for sharing this) and they are also recruiting a Marketing Coordinator.   This might suggest that they currently don't actually have a marketing director.  I would hope they wouldn't have to wait for a new marketing person to fix the website, so you could actually buy tickets on line.  Once they have their marketing people hired, a marketing strategy would be good.  And ASO management needs to get started on rebuilding the roster.

The new owners of the Silverbacks are doing a pretty good job, as best I can tell.  Maybe they could share some ideas.