Blue Skys 2, by Andrew Green

The first part of my look at what may develop the audiences of the future was, well, futuristic in tone, examining the ways in which 21st century technologies can be used in the coming decades to stimulate an interest in serious music. More of that in due course below, but it's worth suggesting that it can be too easy to be seduced by the gleam of the new and forget that traditional approaches will still have a part to play, not to mention the simple expansion of orchestras' work in communities so that music's timeless message reaches every area of society. Always past, present and future need to be held in the balance when dreaming up new strategies.

A conference in London in September hosted by the National Centre for English Music will spend at least part of its time searching for lessons from the past. One of the NCEM's founders, former lecturer Brenda Watson , is deeply worried at the patchiness of good music education in schools - the wide disparities between best practice and worst. A particular concern is that the type of project-based work done by orchestral players in schools, while totally to be admired and praised, tends to obscure and maybe even distract from an equally necessary element of music education. One which, says Watson, may do more to help guarantee concert audiences in the future: what used to be called 'music appreciation.'

'It's now regarded as terribly old-fashioned,' she says, ' but there's absolutely no need for it to be so if it's well taught. Access to musical instruments is vital. Of course it is. But just as important is that children learn about quality listening. So few get this experience. Popular music doesn't really require real listening - it's so packaged and the tracks are so short. Quality listening is at the heart of all education...and music is a great way of developing it.'

Interestingly, at the CBSO, chief executive Stephen Maddock reckons that his orchestra has marginally redressed the balance in favour of more straightforward listening opportunities. 'For example, we're now more geared than we were to kids coming to hear the orchestra...concerts based on popular mainstream classics. And then there's the school canteen type of thing...not least with our Little Big Time Band. Workshops yes, are terrific, but they don't necessarily build concert audiences of the future. The truth is that we want both things....workshops and listening opportunities.'

Legendary music education guru Richard McNichol points out that having such a debate at all is in many ways a luxury. 'I've just returned from a meeting of the Association of European Orchestras at Strasbourg on the subject of audience building...and it's clear that we in Britain are light-years ahead of any other country in our education work.

'My own experience is that in the classroom children always prefer being active and involved as opposed to being passive. But listening is an important part of the process...and there will very often be a 'target piece'. We recently did a project with lots of schools in which they worked on the idea of clouds before coming to performances of Nuages from Debussy's Nocturnes. My colleagues said it was the wrong stuff entirely....but there were five performances and throughout all of them you could have heard a pin drop.'

The good thing, according to Mary Trainor , the Ulster Orchestra's Head of Marketing and development, is that education and community work has been increasingly fundable not just from public sources but also the commercial sector. 'We're seeing more sponsors wanting to take part in such projects. Increasingly they have a sense of their corporate social responsibility to be involved in the community. Our job, of course, is to make sure the case for music is heard loud and clear in that context. It's a very competitive environment.'

Strangely, you might think - given the LSO's burgeoning reputation in the field of education and community work - Richard McNichol believes there are still any number of opportunities for orchestral players to get involved. 'Even at the LSO, there's more work available to be done than we have people to do it....in all kinds of areas - hospitals, universities, schools, youth orchestras and so on. Orchestral players tend to be reactive rather than proactive...you're used to being told what to do. But there are opportunities now to do things differently...players should want more out of their working lives...and more and more variety.

'I've just spent two years working with the Berlin Philharmonic, helping get their education and community work together. The management said I'd be lucky if ten players wanted to get involved. So far it's up to fifty! One of the things they've been very good at over the years, though, is developing what now are around forty chamber ensembles from within the orchestra. One thing they provide is what adults as well as children so much value these days...the chance to get close to players in a more intimate way.'

Looking into the further distance, will today's concert halls remain as they are? Already, orchestras are used to working in all manner of alternative venues - from shopping centres and pubs to prisons and building sites. Who can tell if that will become more the norm? 'Sure, if there really was a crisis over audiences, then all sorts of ideas are going to be considered,' says Stephen Maddock . 'But the central problem is that so far no activity we've been involved in has been more guaranteed to generate the money needed to fund the orchestra than giving concerts in concert halls.'

Will competition for people's leisure time and money mean radical changes to what we understand by the term 'concert hall'? The signs are there already of where things are going, says Mary Trainor . 'One thing we did with a Viennese concert in the Summer Prom series at the Waterfront Hall in Belfast was to take out an area of seating and fill it with tables for corporate entertaining...and we had Viennese dancers performing as well.

'We've used film projection at family concerts - for example, the Snowman film with the sound turned down and our orchestra playing live. Then last year at an Alasdair Malloy children's concert, we had cameras taking shots which were then relayed onto a big screen as a way of holding attention...shots of the kids, shots of the players and so on. Such things can be very expensive, so sponsorship is essential. The good thing is that our focus group involving the business sector here is saying that they want to see new, different creative ideas....multi-media and that sort of thing. Yes, the concert hall has to change, but without alienating the traditional core support. As we look to the future they can't be left behind. In effect, we have to have different 'product lines'.

Can conventional concerts go multi-media in a serious-minded way with, say, art and film being used in an especially creative fashion, the musical and visual elements truly enhancing each other? Stephen Maddock feels that core audience resistance to this sort of thing '....will die away, but there are still questions about how successfully you can combine two creative elements. Can we really concentrate on them both at the same time? And one of the problems is that an artist's 'realisation' of a score in visual terms will be very specific. With sound only, we can conjure up our own images from the music - so there might be conflict if two elements are present and a particular set of visual images intrudes on our own.

'But, yes, I'm sure that if you could get, say, a leading painter involved in a collaboration it would attract sponsorship and an audience...and you could sell it on like an opera production to other orchestras around the world. But you can hardly be doing this sort of thing all the time.'

Ian Ritchie , a man with plenty of experience both as an orchestra manager and festival director, sees this as another area where individual players can get heavily involved. 'Never underestimate orchestral musicians...so many have other skills and are highly intelligent. We need the diversity they can offer. I remember a player at the Scottish Chamber Orchestra who was a very fine painter indeed. Had the creative climate been different back then, he would have been the perfect person to curate some kind of visual/musical project. It would have stirred lots of media interest and hence ticket sales. On the other hand, maybe orchestral players could be involved in writing programme notes from their inside knowledge of the music. It's all about communication with one's audience...being a person, not just a player. Players are a great untapped musical resource.'

Simple things can make all the difference to bringing players alive to their public. 'Before a Rite of Spring concert,' says the LSO's Karen Cardy, 'six of our players were invited to talk very simply on video about the work, from their perspective as players, in an open and honest way. This was played to the audience before the performance. Result....they came across as human beings, and it was a fascinating way to introduce the music.'

And concert halls must especially have a particular feel for kids coming along for the first time to schools concerts, says Richard McNichol . 'It's great when players almost take on the status of pop stars. If they've been to meet the kids in schools already, they're recognised when they come onto the platform...and you should hear the cheering and shouting!'

Ian Ritchie is one who feels, though, that even modern concert halls aren't necessarily adaptable enough to the demands of the 21st century. 'They now need to be theatres in the broadest sense, so that various types of performance can be catered for in a truly successful way. It should be possible for a performance to be fully theatricalised, or to easily incorporate dance. And yet some recently designed halls are still far too much geared purely to orchestral concerts. In contrast, the concert hall of the Cité de la Musique in Paris was configured so that performances can happen everywhere within it. The other fascinating development has been the Disney Hall in Los Angeles, where the audience surrounds the performers, giving a completely different feel to sitting and listening.

Ritchie looks forward to a future in which orchestral players are ever more deeply embedded in their local communities. 'Having players who not only work in the orchestra but also, say, play the organ in the local church, or conduct a local choir, or even teach in a local school, means that an orchestra is grounded in the community. The problem is organising things so that it can be so. You need orchestra managers who are sympathetic.'

And if the concept of an orchestra as a community of musicians continues to gain ground and money can be generated to fund all manner of activities, then maybe one question can finally be answered. 'Are there simply too many concerts to generate audiences consistently?' asks Ritchie. 'Is it good to have a subscription series concert every Thursday? Do we need to cultivate an appetite for music by making each event more 'occasional' and hence more 'special'. Personally, I wouldn't want to go out for dinner once a week, but on rarer occasions it's especially enjoyable!'

Andrew Green

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