Whether you’re an orchestra, a concert series, or a musician, you’ve probably programmed music because of the anniversary of a composer. It’s everywhere in our industry. And we go all in on this approach too, sometimes focusing an entire season or festival around a composer just because it’s an anniversary. This approach has always got me thinking… do audiences actually care, or is this just lazy programming?
I’ve been thinking about this more recently, and quietly in the background, have been chatting with people in the industry about whether there is any data that suggests audiences react positively to anniversaries. The bad news… is no, not really.
On the whole, it seems to be a no. What does seem especially interesting is the lack of any collected data or analysis of whether they work or not (please get in touch if you do have some!). What I did find, though, is that people do have an overall sense of how effective they are, and can give feedback anecdotally. So, here’s the simplification of those anecdotes.