Arts Activities Support

An average of 252 people attended each of Lyra’s 5 concerts. Approximately 60% of our audience stayed for post-concert receptions, interacting positively with Lyra's musicians and building relationships. Audience surveys yielded a surprisingly high 45% average response rate, and with the exception of two, responses were thoughtful, effusive, and positive. GOALS: 1. Rediscovery and reinterpretation of popular and seldom-heard early music that is beautiful and powerful: This season included popular works such as Telemann’s Tafelmusik and Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos, as well as repertoire by less familiar composers like Georg Muffat and Carl Heinrich Graun. One highlight was exploring Der Tod Jesu (The Death of Christ) by Graun with Grinnell Singers. A wonderful piece that was beloved in its day, the Lyra performance was the North American premiere. 2. The potential of the music and musicians to communicate with the audience: This season Lyra’s Artistic Director Jacques Ogg began a series of well received pre-concert talks, to share information about the music, the composers, and his reasons for choosing them. Audience members were invited to mingle with musicians at post-concert receptions, staying as long as an hour after the concert to get to know each other and discuss the concert they just shared. 3. The potential of the program to educate the audience in musical and cultural understanding: Lyra’s Artistic Director wrote this season’s program notes. An engaging and approachable writer, he is also exceptionally knowledgeable. The pre-concert talks and post-concert receptions encouraged open exchange of ideas and questions between musicians, audience members, and Lyra board/administrators. 4. The music’s technical and intellectual challenges for the performers: Many musicians said that the concert of Brandenburg Concertos was both one of the most challenging and most musically satisfying experiences they’d ever had. It's rare to perform all six concertos on the same concert, and doing so on period instruments increases both the difficulty and the satisfaction. The March concert, with full orchestra, soloists, and chorus, was not only one of the most technically challenging concerts of the season but also featured unfamiliar repertoire. By the end of the project, people were in love with the piece and looking eagerly ahead to the next chance to work together. 5. Distinctiveness and personality of themes, lending themselves to effective audience building: Each concert featured a different theme and collection of sounds. For example, the first concert featured all instruments in different combinations, as laid out by Telemann for his “Table Music” vignettes. January celebrated Telemann and all of his connections, with rich strings, and outstanding emerging artists on harpsichord and flute. Overall, we were quite successful in working toward these goals. Jacques’s programming is always engaging, and this season brought in a lot of new audience members. One area on which we could have focused more is educating the audience in musical and cultural understanding. While our concert experience is informative and welcoming, we can do better at making more information about the music and instruments we play available online so that people arrive at concerts with greater basic understanding of baroque music. Lyra successfully reached our intended community this year, which included early music lovers as young as two years old, senior citizens, and everyone between. In terms of numbers, we averaged 252 people per concert, shattering expectations and our goal of 210. Students made up around 10% of that total. We are always exploring new ways to bring in more students, both to encourage the next generation of musicians and music lovers and also because of the special vibrancy of a multi-generation audience. Lyra’s concerts are economically accessible to the community through low prices for students ($10/ticket), and our policy of giving out many complimentary tickets to families, low-income fans, and anyone else who requests them. This year around 60 people received comp tickets for our Sundin Hall concerts. We also offer volunteer opportunities for those who would like to exchange their time for concert tickets, resulting in an additional 5-10 people per concert attending for free. One of the reasons we chose Sundin Hall for our performances is its convenient parking and easy entry, and we give early entrance through a side door to our patrons with special needs. This includes one blind woman, and a number of people in wheelchairs. Promoting cultural and ethnic diversity is a challenge, which is unsurprising considering that classical music audiences in the region are overwhelmingly white. We have had the most luck reaching diverse audiences through our school outreach programs, and we continue to explore new ways to encourage and welcome a culturally diverse audience at our programs. Our community of musicians is as diverse as it can be within the Twin Cities region. Just about every professional early music specialist in town is hired by Lyra at some point in the season. Lyra is unusual in that the majority of its musicians are women. The LGBT community is represented including gay and transgender players. Ethnically Lyra is mainly white, but includes players from Brazil and Venezuela.