A few years ago, I was on an industry panel thing at a music college alongside the CEO of an orchestra. One of the questions from a student to this CEO was “when I come to your concerts, I rarely see any other young people. What are you doing to attract young people to your concerts?”
Straight away, the CEO replied with an answer that could be copy and pasted by any other orchestra or concert hall in the world straight into their funding applications. “We’re actually doing lots to try and bring in young people to our concerts. We have a great under 30s scheme to provide discounted tickets to make sure concerts are as accessible to young people as possible”.
Here’s the thing. Cheap ticket schemes for young people do not work.
