Nougaty Goodness

An Embarrassment of Riches?

Marketing an arts organization can be a daunting task. We are usually working on the promise of future revenues from our work—ticket sales for performances or sales of art works—and the amount of working capital reserves is often pretty marginal. When we look at the cost of an ad in a magazine or newspaper, we do the math: How many tickets do I have to sell to pay for that? If we sell tickets for $20 a seat, how do we justify paying $300 or oven $1000 for a single ad? The answer is pretty clear in some cases. If you don’t advertise, you won’t sell as many tickets. And in some cases, it’s much more important to get audiences accustomed to coming to see your events than it is to break even on advertising expenses. But knowing what is the most effective means of getting the word out is always a challenge, whether you are an individual artist or a large performing arts organization.

We rely on so-called “earned media” for much of our public information. People are interested in the arts, so when artists and arts organizations are doing something interesting, it is, we hope, considered newsworthy. So the media sometimes covers the event as news. This benefits everyone. The media gets content that people want to see, thus increasing their audiences and allowing them to charge more for advertising. The arts organizations get much needed exposure at virtually no cost. But the media can be fickle. If we are doing something wonderful but routine, it may not be considered newsworthy. We can usually get listings in events calendars, but if we have a big expensive show like the opera, there’s really no choice. We have to advertise to fill seats, but then we have to charge more for tickets.

Yes, I do marketing for the UK School of Music. I am also an alum. So I am expected to be an apologist for the school. It’s my job. But I have to tell you, I am continually awed by the accomplishments of these people. This is not just my job. It’s my supreme pleasure to let people know about what’s going on here. If I weren’t working here, I’d still be telling everyone I know what an amazing, creative powerhouse this place has become. I hope my enthusiasm is not tainted by the fact that I work here. In this column I often concentrate on a UK music event or ensemble, but as often I just talk about things that I have been thinking about lately. I appreciate the editors of Nougat for allowing me to be flexible and I try in these columns to provide more depth than just a promotional press release kind of read.

Having said that, I really want you to know some important facts about the UK School of Music. This is not hyperbole. We here are in a virtual state of euphoria regarding the accomplishments and national recognition our faculty and students have recently achieved. And we have not gone unnoticed. UK Symphony director John Nardolillo was the featured speaker after the first quarter of the UK-LSU football game (which I am sure is the part of that triple-overtime game the fans will remember). And in reaction to the recent gift of $1 million to the UK Opera Theatre program announced at a UK Board of Trustees meeting, UK President Lee T. Todd is reported to have said, “If you look at our school of music, it's on fire."

Here are some of the recent highlights:

• The UK School of Music has around 400 music students, including more than 150 graduate students. Our facilities are bursting at the seams and this puts pressure on the application process. Entrance into our various programs is highly competitive as our faculty and buildings are only able to accommodate a finite student body.
• UK Opera Theatre is among the foremost opera training programs in the nation. Their recent premiere of Thomas Pasatieri’s opera The Hotel Casablanca was the first involving a new collaborative relationship with the San Francisco Opera, an internationally renowned company. This landmark production was recorded in Lexington with UKOT and the UK Symphony Orchestra by the elite classical recording company Albany Records and will be the original cast recording.
• UK Opera has developed relationships with corporations and foundations (e.g., Alltech and the William E. Schmidt Foundation) that have resulted in prestigious scholarship opportunities that attract the best and brightest students from all over America and the world. Most recently, the Schmidt Foundation gave a gift of $1 million to the UKOT for building renovations, outreach programs, and a scholarship competition.
• The UK Orchestra, under the direction of conductor John Nardolillo, has had several high profile recording projects. Starting with the Music of the Horse CD recorded for Keeneland, followed by the recording of George Frederick McKay’s ballet “Epoch” by NAXOS, and culminating with the latest release by with Arlo Guthrie. The orchestra performs with Guthrie in the Singletary Center on November 2 and in the world famous Carnegie Hall in New York on Thanksgiving weekend.
• The UK Wind Ensemble, under the direction of John Cody Birdwell, has also made a number of groundbreaking recordings, especially of new works. Their recent CD Distilled in Kentucky features premieres from the Bluegrass State including the amazing Concerto for Alto Saxophone and Wind Orchestra, by English composer Mike Mower, with UK Jazz director Miles Osland giving a stellar solo performance. The UKWE has received an invitation from the United States–China Cultural and Educational Foundation to tour China in May 2008, prior to the 2008 Olympic Games.
• The UK Percussion Ensemble, under the direction of James Campbell, traveled recently to Columbus to perform a concert at Percussive Arts Society International Conference. The Percussion Ensemble has been named one of three winners at this highly prestigious conference for the last three times of their eligibility, a feat no other school has ever accomplished.
• The UK Jazz Ensemble, under the direction of Miles Osland, has been invited to perform at the 61st annual Midwest International Band and Orchestra Clinic to be held in December in Chicago. The Midwest Clinic is an international band and orchestra conference featuring the most select music ensembles from across the globe. It is the most prestigious music education conference in the world. Only two college jazz ensembles in the country were invited.
• Both the UK Women’s Choir, under the direction of Lori Hetzel, and the UK Men’s Chorus, under the direction of Jeff Johnson, were selected by separate invitations to perform at the American Choral Directors Association Southern Division convention in Louisville in March 2008.  It is unprecedented for two choral ensembles from the same university to be invited for the same major convention. The UK Women’s Choir is one of only two women’s choirs in the country to be invited to perform at the 2008 Music Educators National Conference to be held in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in April 2008.

I hope you will come to some of the 200 or so public events the School of Music presents each year. There is almost certainly something going on that will awe you as much as it does me.

-Dwight Newton is a musicologist and is the Marketing Coordinator for the UK School of Music. His web sites are at oriscus.com and mewzik.com.