Rethinking Orchestras: Culture, Demand, and a Shifting Public.

Where is the audience? How Do We Maintain an Interesting Season? How Do We Pay Our Admin Fairly? How Do We Get reactions on social media? How Do We Get People to Donate? How Do We Guarantee the Longevity of Our Organization? These are all valid questions that orchestras ask every day. Meetings are held to discuss them, summits are organized, speakers are brought in, and data is shared by every participant to try to make things better.

However, the one question no one seems to be asking is: Are orchestras, in their current form and business model, still viable? Are they as interesting as they used to be, or do we need to carefully observe the cultural scene and recognize how things are shifting?

As a classically trained violinist who has played in many places and with different orchestras—and loved every moment of it—I now find myself reflecting on the future of orchestras. Do we need as many orchestras in Canada or in Quebec? Is it time for a change?

The development of orchestras in the 17th and 18th centuries was heavily influenced by court ensembles, which later expanded into public institutions during the Baroque and Classical eras, such as the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra and the Vienna Philharmonic. The Royal Danish Orchestra (Det Kongelige Kapel), established in 1448 in Copenhagen, Denmark, remains the earliest continuously active orchestra on record. *

Orchestras have evolved into a business models that require administrative teams to plan seasons, market events, apply for grants, sell tickets, produce, solicit donors and sponsors, and write grants to the CALQ, the CAM, The Canada Council for the Arts, all of that while acknowledging that grants have been reduced for many organizations, and people are not attending orchestral concerts as they used to. Did you know that, according to Statistics Quebec, classical music is one of the least attended performing art forms? While major orchestras are pushing to fully recover after COVID, by taking preventative measures that they can afford, smaller orchestras are struggling way more with very limited resources, those limitations affect cultural administrators working in the field.

The 2025 reality is the following, concerts are being canceled, complimentary tickets are being distributed, and discussions about how to bring audiences back are ongoing, I get invitations to webinars and meetings so we can discuss how to attract audience. But what if the audience doesn’t want to come back? What if we are unable to cultivate a new audience to fill concert halls? It may be time to analyze the situation through the lens of supply and demand.

During the Public Consultation on the Cultural Development Policy 2025-2030, held on February 4th, the Commission on Culture, Heritage, and Sports made several recommendations, including the following that I found very important to contemplate and include in anything you want to plan:

R-13: Grant greater importance to youth in the policy and recognize their specific needs (early childhood, childhood, adolescence, and young adulthood) to ensure they play an active role in today’s and tomorrow’s cultural landscape across all Montreal neighborhoods.

This recommendation came after the following consideration from the Commission:

• The importance of introducing youth to Montreal’s cultural scene from an early age and renewing audiences by connecting young people with cultural experiences.

• The effectiveness of cultural mediation in sparking young people’s interest in cultural offerings.
• The decline in performing arts attendance among 16-24-year-olds in Quebec, which dropped by 25% between 2018 and 2023, compared to an overall attendance drop of 19%, even as the population increased during that period.
• Survey responses from youth indicate that their top motivations for attending cultural activities are:
  1. Going with family or friends.
  2. Proximity to their home.
  3. Alignment with their interests and identity.
  4. Affordability.
  5. Inclusivity, regardless of language, age, or physical condition.
• The majority of young respondents expressed a desire to be involved in selecting cultural activities.

These considerations are crucial when asking, “Where is the audience?” and when programming to attract new audience. Perhaps the more pertinent question is, “What does the audience want?” the youth want to be involved in selecting cultural activities!

Do we really need as many classical music concerts in Montreal? Even when we are curious to attend or when we plan to attend some prices would make people think twice before purchasing a ticket let alone the fact that there’s no sense of rarity, meaning if I miss this concert this week, I can attend 3 other concerts the week after. Do we really need to hire people and pay them poorly under the name of culture and keep trying to find funding for our activities but not for our people?  I am only talking about orchestras here because I live with this art form, but this question applies to every cultural and artistic form that is searching for audience. Life evolves, interests change, and every generation has its cultural tendencies which might look non-cultural to the previous generation or even be described as a cultural decline. Businesses adapt through mergers, closures, or product development in response to the change. Isn’t it time for orchestras to do the same?

* John Spitzer & Neal Zaslaw, The birth of the orchestra : history of an institution, 1650-1815 (2004)

Rasha Masalkhi

*The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official position or policies of any organization with which they are affiliated.