An ongoing concern of performing arts managers is the impact of arts participation and engagement programs on creating new audiences. Specifically, arts organizations are concerned as to whether or not their efforts elicit new patrons to attend performances regularly. Concerns exist in particular about the overall impact of engagement programs like simulcasts, wondering if a new audience members are attending these events at all, or if the events are drawing the same group of people that come to staged performances. Furthermore, a growing discomfort exists that opera simulcasts might actually be “cannibalizing sales,” or in other words, reducing ticket sales at live opera performances.
A Virtual Orchestra
The Australian Chamber Orchestra (ACO) has teamed up with Sydney digital media company Mod Productions to produce a new interactive “virtual orchestra” that is breaking down audience barriers in the music world. The resulting audio-visual installation, “ACO Virtual,” has created the means to bring the Orchestra outside the concert hall and into spaces where the ACO may not perform.
Research Update: From Simulcast Audience To Live Audience
San Francisco Opera's (SFO) general director David Gockley came to the company in 2006, bringing with him the legacy of free "plazacasts" that he had done at the Houston Grand Opera, his former home. During his first year at the San Francisco Opera, 8,000 people turned up at Civic Center Plaza near the Opera’s home at War Memorial Opera House to watch a simulcast of Puccini's Madama Butterfly. However, Gockley was concerned that there was no method of tracking the conversion of simulcast attendees to ticket buyers, so at the suggestion of a staff member, the simulcasts were moved to the AT&T ballpark.
