WHAT IS SPRING FOR MUSIC?
Spring For Music is a festival of six concerts in Carnegie Hall by North American orchestras performing creative, stimulating, and adventurous programs. Eligible orchestras apply for participation by proposing programs reflective of their artistic beliefs and consistent with Spring For Music’s artistic philosophy.
WHAT IS S4M’S ARTISTIC PHILOSOPHY?
Spring For Music believes that an orchestra’s fundamental obligation is to lead and not follow taste, and that imaginative programming will advance, and not just satisfy, expectations. Accordingly, Spring For Music provides a laboratory, free of the usual marketing and financial constraints, for an orchestra to be creative with interesting, provocative and stimulating programs reflecting its beliefs, its standards and vision. Creative programs also reflect each orchestra’s particular characteristics of sound, ensemble and style, as determined by its musicians, music director and its tradition. Spring For Music’s philosophy comes from our belief that an artistic point of view must infuse everything an orchestra does, and that its programs not only illustrate but validate that viewpoint. Great programs have imaginative, meaningful and deliberate thought behind the selection of pieces, the sequence of pieces, the program structure, and the presentation of pieces. This does not mandate a rigid program “theme” or simply a healthy dose of contemporary music; rather it reflects a stimulating mix of pieces, styles, artists and composers that engages the listener in an absorbing adventure – a journey of seduction, intellect and emotion, where the program’s totality becomes greater than the sum of the individual pieces.
WHEN ARE THE CONCERTS?
Spring For Music’s second season takes place Monday, May 7 through Saturday, May 12, 2012 in Carnegie Hall. Festivals in future years will take place at approximately the same time of year.
HOW MUCH ARE TICKETS?
Tickets for all locations will be priced at $25, with a limited number of student tickets at $10. In addition, concertgoers can buy tickets to four concerts for the price of three ($75) or six concerts for the price of four ($100). Tickets are sold on a first-come, first-served basis through the Carnegie Hall Box Office, CarnegieCharge and on line at www.carnegiehall.org. There are no subscriptions.
SEAT AVAILABILITY FOR PARTICPATING ORCHESTRAS
Each participating orchestra will receive two complimentary boxes to its concert for its own, the conductor’s and/or soloist’s use. Additionally, each participating orchestra will have the opportunity of purchasing up to 1,000 tickets at $25 each on a non-refundable basis for use and/or sale to its own patrons. The orchestra’s ticket allocation will be taken from all locations in Carnegie Hall.
WHAT TIME ARE CONCERTS?
Each concert will begin at 7:30 pm.
WHAT IS THE FINANCIAL DEAL FOR ORCHESTRAS?
Each participating orchestra will receive exactly the same guaranteed fee. Additionally, should the box office receipts exceed that guaranteed fee, the surplus goes to the orchestra of that particular evening. Each participating orchestra receives a guarantee of $50,000 against the ticket proceeds for their concert. The scale of the house at 100% capacity is roughly $67,000. The compensation will be all-inclusive and includes all the required media rights outlined below.
IF I CAN’T BE THERE IN PERSON, CAN I STILL HEAR THE CONCERTS?
Absolutely. One of our media partners, Classical 105.9 FM WQXR in New York City, will broadcast all six Spring For Music concerts live from Carnegie Hall, with live audio streaming at www.wqxr.org. If you miss the live event, don’t worry. Concert streams will be archived on WQXR.
WHICH ORCHESTRAS WERE ELIGIBLE FOR THIS YEAR’S S4M?
Orchestras invited to apply for participation in Spring For Music 2012 include all North American (United States and Canada) orchestras and chamber orchestras in the League of American Orchestras Groups I and II; plus any other Groups III & IV orchestras that have received ASCAP Awards for Adventurous Programming for any of the previous three years. Orchestras who have participated in Spring For Music are not eligible to do so in consecutive years.
HOW DO ORCHESTRAS APPLY?
Participation in Spring For Music is competitive and eligible orchestras must apply by submitting creative program proposals. Orchestras for Spring For Music 2013 have already been chosen and Spring For Music’s artistic director is in the process of selecting six orchestras from the proposals for 2014.
WHAT’S THE SELECTION TIMETABLE?
Orchestras for the 2012 Spring For Music were chosen in December 2009, and orchestras for the 2013 festival in December 2010. We are in the selection process for 2014.
HOW DO YOU CHOOSE WHAT ORCHESTRAS PLAY IN THE FESTIVAL?
We invited roughly 65 North American orchestras —those in groups I and II of the League of American Orchestras as well as smaller orchestras that had won an ASCAP prize for adventurous programming in the last three years—to submit a program for the inaugural festival in 2011. We were looking for unfettered imagination and boldness, not standard fare. After carefully reviewing every proposal, Spring For Music Artistic Director Thomas W. Morris chose the seven participants for the first Spring For Music festival, in 2011. He continues to do so for future festivals, choosing six orchestras yearly going forward.
FURTHER QUESTIONS
If you have further questions, please send inquiries to:
Spring For Music Festival of North American Orchestras, Inc. 470 Park Avenue South, 9th Floor North New York, NY 10016. Phone: 212-683-6060 Email: info@springformusic.com
