Wall Street Journal features NJSO Accents
The Wall Street Journal takes an in-depth look into NJSO Accents—pre- and post-concert events that enhance the concert experience:
After a New Jersey Symphony Orchestra concert of Brahms and Chopin in November, about 50 people gathered in Newark’s performing-arts center, munching on cookies and sipping Prosecco.
James Roe, the orchestra’s president and chief executive, addressed the room. “What happens between 8 p.m. and 9:35 is maybe the best possible concert format,” he said, mentioning the “mosaic of people” in the audience, “but what happens before and after is what makes it relevant.”
The “mosaic” that night was attending “Saturday Night Out: an LGBT Event,” part of a series the symphony dubbed “NJSO Accents,” of events designed to attract and retain new audiences, and to create a more interactive experience for existing ones.
[NJSO Accent] events are part of a nationwide trend to make the classical concert, a format that has remained unchanged for centuries, attractive to a modern audience. While many ensembles have experimented with the altering the concert itself—changing venues, start times and even repertoire—the New Jersey Symphony has taken a different approach: designing pre- and post-concert events around particular demographics and interests.
“I think of Accent events as framing a work of art,” said Mr. Roe, who is also the orchestra’s former acting principal oboist. “They are a way of integrating art into people’s lives.”
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The events began after what Mr. Roe called “a couple of aha moments” surrounding a series of pops concerts. One evening, a jazz band played in the lobby, and audience members spontaneously joined professional ballroom dancers. The next day, a preconcert Beatles singalong in New Brunswick attracted 300 people.
Then, last year, at an event called #OrchestraYou, over 50 amateur musicians joined orchestra members for a post-concert performance in the lobby.
After the event, “it became clear we had to become very intentional, and very institutional, about this,” Mr. Roe said.
So this season, the orchestra turned these scattered successes into a series.
Some events center around particular demographics, like college night, while others are themed: A Russian poetry reading is paired with a concert of music by Rachmaninoff and Tchaikovsky, and a Czech beer garden—dubbed “The Best of the Wurst”—precedes a Dvořák symphony.
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At the LGBT event, the evening’s piano soloist, Inon Barnatan, and a handful of musicians mingled with the crowd ... Bart Feller, the orchestra’s principal flutist [said,] “But I love that we’re giving [the audience] a way to pull back the curtain and show how the soup gets made.”
Learn more about NJSO Accents and the events currently scheduled through the rest of the season.