Selling an orchestra

Press, 26 December 1984, Page 11

Selling an orchestra

When it comes to ideas, Christchurch Symphony Orchestra promotions manager Mark Skelding admits that he is extreme.

Appointed in September to look after the promotions and sponsorship of the orchestra, Mr Skelding sees his job as selling the orchestra.

And that, he says, is a matter of imagination. “I come up with some ‘Hey, wouldn’t it be great if . . .’ ideas and then Chris (Broderick, the orchestra’s general manager) and I work on them. Chris is the moderator who thinks of the practicalities.” Mr Skelding believes that enthusiasm in promoting the orchestra to the business community, the public, and musicians is an asset.

He is the first promotions manager of a New Zealand orchestra and, in the three months he has been in Christchurch, has concentrated on arranging sponsorship for orchestra concerts.

To make the orchestra accessible to the community is the main aim.

“We have just completed a promotion in the Shades shopping precinct where we had a wind ensemble and two quartets in the precinct. People could wander by, stop for as long as they liked and listen.

“Breaking the orchestra down to smaller groups of musicians is one way of getting around any hesitancy at paying for large groups,” Mr Skelding says. Ideally, he would like to

see string quartets or ensembles playing at a variety of functions.

“We could play at board meetings, in the lunch breaks as background music. We could play any number of places. It is a case of letting people know we are available.”

The small group work, Mr Skelding stresses, is in addition to the usual quota of full orchestra concerts.

“No way are we forsaking our performance schedule. These are other ideas to give the musicians work and to make the public more aware of the orchestra’s existence and versatility.” Mark Skelding acknowledges that potential sponsors may feel that the orchestra would appeal to only a limited audience. “Obviously, it is different from sponsoring a rugby match,” he says. He acknowledges also

that the audience that the C.S.O. already has is more likely to attend a concert in the Christchurch Town Hall than one on a street corner.

However, he cites the elderly woman who stopped to watch the orchestra in the Shades. “She said she had never missed a concert in the Town Hall for years and she thought hearing the orchestra in a shopping arcade was fantastic.

“We have a responsibility to play to the people of the city. The orchestra is the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra. We have a responsibility also to the music.”

His post of promotions manager was created- as part of the orchestra’s five year plan for development. “In five years we hope to be able to pay some musicians a retainer and in 10 to 15 to have a full-time orchestra. Even before that

five years is up, we hope to give our musicians a lot of work.”

Mr Skelding first visited X New Zealand from his native England five years ; ago. He went to Australia « for a while where he ran his * own business and spent a year as advertising mana- ; ger for a magazine on the - arts in Bristol before re- “ turning to Christchurch and his present job.

The next large project, apart from the orchestra’s present subscription series, is a visit in March of the music director of Twenthieth Century Fox, Lionel Newman. Mr Newman will take the baton for a concert featuring hits from 30 years of films.

Mark Skelding is working on sponsorship that would allow projection of scenes from the films and perhaps a live stage show as part of the concert.