This year I was at a pre-concert drinks thing for an orchestra. While I was there, I overheard this conversation between a donor and the CEO of the orchestra that went something like this…
Donor: “I thought last week’s concert was amazing! I thought the orchestra were the best I’ve heard them for a long time, and the symphony is one of my favourite pieces that I’ve loved since school.”
CEO: “Oh yes, did you see the 5 star write up it got in the Times?”
I was totally blown away by this. In seconds the CEO of the orchestra dismissed the view of a loyal audience member with a heartfelt story, to validate the value of the performance by what a review said. It’s all the more striking that this was a donor, so they were ignoring someone who actually gives them money. How do you think the donor felt after this interaction?
This experience has stuck with me great example of a problem the classical music industry has. We care about reviews instead of our audience.
Now, this isn’t going to be a blog saying that reviews aren’t of value. In fact, I believe the opposite. But it is going to be a blog exploring why we as an industry value reviews disproportionally highly, and in doing so exclude our audience to our detriment.
