ALLENTOWN, Pa. — Hoping to bring young people closer to the orchestra, a new young professionals program is joining the offerings of the Allentown Symphony.
Miller Symphony Hall's new Young Professionals Circle is being pushed as a way to build professional and community connections with other music lovers.
- Miller Symphony Hall in Allentown is introducing a new "Young Professionals Circle" hoping to connect a younger audience to the symphony and provide networking opportunities
- The program is free to join on its website and offers discounted tickets and special events
- Symphony hall said it's continuing to gauge what members want in the new program and hopes to break down barriers to the orchestra
Discussions for the group began last year, with organizers saying young symphony-goers and music fans who join the free program will have opportunities to connect with symphony board members as well as each other at special events.
They also will get special ticket deals and opportunities from the orchestra.
Organizers emphasized the gap that the coronavirus pandemic made clear not just from consuming music in person, but being able to share it with and discuss it with other people.
"I think conceptually, it's really meaningful as a young professional. We get to mingle together and have that common interest. It doesn't have to be specifically music, but it has to be that common interest in supporting the arts and culture in the Lehigh Valley, which I think is very important."Carmen Flosdorf, Allentown Symphony board member
"I think conceptually, it's really meaningful as a young professional," board member Carmen Flosdorf said.
"We get to mingle together and have that common interest. It doesn't have to be specifically music, but it has to be that common interest in supporting the arts and culture in the Lehigh Valley, which I think is very important," Flosdorf said.
'The sky's the limit'
Starting discussions last year, project co-chairs Flosdorf and Necole Jacobson researched similar young professionals programs in places such as Philadelphia, Dallas, Atlanta and New York City, and said they saw the benefit of bringing something similar to Allentown.
The free program for ages 22-45 currently has more than 90 members, according to those at the symphony hall. The professionals circle can be joined via the symphony's website.
"The sky's the limit in terms of what we can do. It's just a matter of gauging what the interest is, what are they interested in, and doing events around that."Carmen Flosdorf, Allentown Symphony board member
It officially launched in February with a small jazz "circle night" for early members.
Organizers said the program still is very early in its formation and is developing and changing based on feedback and what they observe.
That may include opening up rehearsals for members to sit in and listen, and presale opportunities, they said.
For the upcoming final concert of the Allentown Symphony Orchestra of Tchaikovsky's Fourth Symphony, the Saturday, April 15, performance will be the "circle night," offering members $45 for the best available seats and catered receptions during the intermission and following the concert.
Other non "circle night" concerts will have reduced ticket costs as well.
There are plans to incorporate special opportunities for the young professionals circle members into upcoming events such as the "Empire Strikes Back" screening set for this fall.
"The sky's the limit in terms of what we can do," Flosdorf said. "It's just a matter of gauging what the interest is, what are they interested in, and doing events around that."
'Creating that fan base for the future'
Managers of Miller Symphony Hall said they hope that could reduce barriers that might keep younger people from a way of getting out that often is perceived as being for older, affluent people.
"There's a strong [perceived] thread of elitism with the symphony," Miller Symphony Hall Director of Marketing Michael Granados said.
"Part of this is also setting up a world of welcome that anyone can participate. This is a very democratic American institution, the symphony orchestra, and it's open to everybody."Miller Symphony Hall Director of Marketing Michael Granados
"I don't particularly feel that that is appropriately placed. People shouldn't feel left out, or feel that they can't participate [in] the symphony.
"Part of this is also setting up a world of welcome that anyone can participate. This is a very democratic American institution, the symphony orchestra, and it's open to everybody."
Symphony officials see the program as potentially a precursor to similar programs in other Lehigh Valley art institutions — much as they have seen in cities at which they looked in forming the program.
"I do think that in the next couple of years, you're probably going to see the [Allentown] Art Museum having a similar program, probably the Civic Theater and some other larger institutions that will have a focus on the younger group in growing and creating that fan base for the future," Flosdorf said.
