Concert Patrons Provide Valuable Feedback
by Anne Longmore, Director of Marketing
In December, we reported on the first set of results from our Chorus America Intrinsic Impact Survey. Now that we are one quarter of the way through the data-collection for this eight-concert research project, we are working hard to compile and evaluate our results and to encourage all concert patrons to respond.
If you attended our Mozart concert in October or Festival of Carols in December, you received a request via a program insert and a follow-up e-mail to complete an online survey. In fact, every patron who attends one of our four subscription concerts this season will be invited to visit an online survey and answer a series of questions – from why they attended the concert and which educational materials they accessed, to their personal feelings about the musical works and the artistic performances. We are pleased to have received 352 completed surveys to date. The patrons who responded provided us with valuable feedback on what is important to them in a concert experience and what questions the concerts raised for them. While all of the feedback we have received has been interesting, these questions, in particular, have provided lots of food for thought for us. We have received questions, for example, about how concert programming decisions are made, about artistic interpretation, and about the experience of singing in the choir – from the amount of rehearsal time needed to how the singers feel about the music. We are now considering different ways that we can share answers to these questions with patrons, so look for some answers coming your way later this year.
The feedback we receive on the many facets of the concert experience will help us understand how well our concerts are meeting our audience members’ expectations and fulfilling the TMC’s mission. Survey responses are one of the ways we give voice to our patrons in our planning discussions.
This research is not only a great opportunity for us to hear, in a structured way, from many of our patrons, but also an opportunity to compare the responses we receive to those of other major choirs across North America. Our research is part of the two-year 21-choir Chorus America Intrinsic Impact project that runs until 2016.
We thank each of our patrons who have taken the time to complete a post-concert survey. We value your opinion on each concert you attend, so if you attend more than one concert this season, we would greatly appreciate if you would complete a survey after each concert. If you will be in the audience for our Passio concert in March or Sacred Music for a Sacred Space in April, please look for the program insert inviting you to complete the survey. Even if you completed a survey after Mozart & Haydn or Festival of Carols (or, better yet, both!), we hope you will continue to provide feedback for our upcoming concerts. The more responses we receive, the better our data will be, and the better informed our choices can be.