Lincoln’s Symphony Orchestra was the topic of the Lincoln South Rotary Club Meeting on January 26. We heard from Executive Director Barbara Zach.
Barbara walked us through the various changes that have taken place for the orchestra to transition to the community focused organization that it is today.
After collaborating with a variety of stakeholders, they wrote the current mission statement: Lincoln’s Symphony Orchestra presents inspiring programs that welcome all members of our community to discover and cultivate a profound, personal connection with live symphonic music.
Barbara has been with the orchestra since 2001 and became the Executive Director in 2005. A few years earlier it became obvious that there was a great deal of turmoil with the orchestra. The members are part of the musician's union and collective bargaining was breaking down....and the Community was aware of the problems. She made a personal observation that half of her job was making sure the right things were getting done and the other half was making sure others knew of the right things that were getting done.
She was honored to gain a seat with the inaugural class of a two-year long Executive Leadership Program by the League of American Orchestras. The program focused on personal development of leaders - not the operational aspects of running an orchestra. She used those skills to bring change to the orchestra, leading it through a critical time of artistic growth and audience expansion..
Through strategic planning it was revealed that one of the core values was community. To make a significant change there they would need to collaborate further with the various stakeholders.
Among the changes implemented:
--the orchestra moved their performances from Kimball Hall to a larger venue - The Lied Center
--ticket prices were changed - previously they were as much as $60, now they are $15 or $35 and only $5 for children for most tickets
--they have implemented new programs to get youth interested in orchestra music including workshops that allow the children to test out instruments
--family concerts include puppets, actors, story-telling and the concerts are shorter to encourage even the youngest family members to attend
--programs to include those less fortunate and immigrants have been implemented such as holding a class on music and then taking the youth and their parents to a concert by bus
--tickets are made available at no cost to veterans for each concert and the orchestra provides trumpeters to play Taps at the funerals of veterans
--with support from local organizations, LSO provides more than 1000 complimentary tickets
Since implementing community outreach, the orchestra has performed for more than twice as many audience members as they did previously, and 85% of LSO’s individual donors have increased their contributions to support this initiative.