Dreaming Big in June

For the very first time, the League of American Orchestras will hold its National Conference in Houston, a city that, from space to energy to healthcare and the arts, dreams big. This year we will be looking optimistically at the creative and impactful solutions and progress orchestras are making on the major challenges that our field faces.

Here’s a look at just some of what’s in store at the League’s 2024 National Conference. (Note: Conference details may be subject to change.)

Inspiring Music and Speakers

The Houston Symphony, host orchestra for the Conference, plans a hearty, Texas-sized welcome for all Conference delegates. “Welcome to Houston and Jones Hall, the home of the Houston Symphony,” says Music Director Juraj Valčuha. “One of the world’s great orchestras for 110 years, the Houston Symphony looks forward to welcoming you and to sharing all that this great city has to offer.” Executive Director and CEO John Mangum adds, “We will come together for engaging dialogues, presentations, and friendship, and we will share a special concert performance of Strauss’s Salome.”

Live music will be everywhere at this year’s Conference—in fact, there will be seven performances in many genres by multiple ensembles. The Houston Symphony’s concert on Friday, June 7, at 8:00 p.m. will showcase Valčuha’s innovative visual approach to semi-staged opera with Salome in Concert. The concert will take place in the symphony’s newly renovated Jones Hall, which features updated acoustics and interior while retaining its iconic mid-century exterior.

Live music-making is a focal point, with performances by the Houston Symphony, the Houston Youth Symphony, ROCO, Mercury Chamber Orchestra, and Texas Music Festival.

On Wednesday evening, June 5, the Mercury Chamber Orchestra will present “Baroque to Boleros: Music from Latin America” at Discovery Green, a beautiful oasis park just across the street from the Conference hotel, the Marriott Marquis. Featuring Artistic Director Antoine Plante and mezzo-soprano Cecilia Duarte, this special hour-long program presents centuries of music from across Latin America and ranges from fun Baroque dances to fiery boleros.

From Tuesday, June 4 to Friday, June 7, the American Composers Orchestra’s EarShot Readings will be held in conjunction with the Conference and will comprise four days of rehearsals, mentoring, and events, followed by two days with public performances. The EarShot Readings and concerts will be given by ROCO Chamber orchestra at the Kinder High School for the Performing and Visual Arts, Denney Theatre, just two blocks from the Marriott. The featured composers and their works will be: Autumn Maria Reed, Mental Health Suite: The Persistent Past & The Fearful Future; Naama Perel-Tzadok, Agricultural Pictures; Patricia Leonard, John Adams Theme–Overture from My Dearest Friend; and Stella G. Gitelman Willoughby, Stories of Sorrow and Strength: A Suite in Two Movements. These scores will be performed on Thursday, June 6 from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., conducted by Mei-Ann Chen, Artistic Partner to ROCO. The mentor composers for these EarShot Readings include Valerie Coleman, Jennifer Higdon, and Nina Shekhar. One work chosen by the orchestra will also be performed at the Denney Theatre as part of a public concert and Conference performance session showcasing women composers given by ROCO on Friday, June 7, at 11:00 am, and live streamed for free at ROCO.org, YouTube, and Facebook.

There’s music right from the start of the Conference, beginning with the Opening Session. On Thursday afternoon, June 6, at Jones Hall, the Houston Youth Symphony will perform Jessie Montgomery’s Soul Force and Silvestre Revueltas’s Sensemayá, conducted by Artistic Director Michael Webster. The keynote address will be given by Gabriela Lena Frank, winner of a Latin Grammy and nominated for Grammys as both composer and pianist. She is currently composer-in-residence with the Philadelphia Orchestra and is a former composer-in-residence with the Houston Symphony. Another highlight of the Opening Session will be the presentation of the League’s highest honor, the Gold Baton award, to Lee Koonce, formerly President and Artistic Director of Gateways Music Festival from 2016 to the end of last year. Koonce was previously the Executive Director of Ballet Hispanico and the Third Street Music School Settlement in New York City, and Director of Community Relations for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

Following the League’s annual meeting Friday afternoon, June 7, which will honor outgoing League Board Chair Doug Hagerman, a new-format general session, entitled “Re-envisioning Audiences,” will open spaces for orchestra teams to focus together on the critical work of integrating community engagement, artistic planning, inclusion, and marketing into holistic approaches to audience. The session, led by Donna Walker-Kuhne and Dr. Durrell Cooper, will cover the need to have courageous conversations with internal and external stakeholders, the importance of building safe spaces for communities in our halls, emerging approaches to audience and revenue growth, and bringing adjacent organizational disciplines such as artistic planning, marketing, and community engagement together to work toward newly aligned goals.

On Saturday morning, June 8, for the performance session “Creative Partnerships to Maximize Youth Learning and Development,” the Houston Youth Symphony will showcase its eight-year partnership with WindSync, a yearly school residency and annual performance with the HYS Coda Program, Houston’s first after-school, El Sistema-inspired program. At the session, we will hear from various partners and young Coda Program musicians, with a performance of a commissioned work by Nicky Sohn.

The Conference will conclude with music at the lunch on Saturday, June 8, featuring Resilient Sounds, a Houston Symphony project—in partnership with Rice University, University of Houston, and Interfaith Ministries for Greater Houston—celebrating the determination and hope of Houston’s refugee communities. The final keynote address will be from Dr. Ahmad Naser Sarmast, Founding Director of the Afghanistan National Institute of Music, which fled Taliban-occupied Kabul for Lisbon, where the entire school community was not only granted asylum but also invited to resettle and rebuild.

Sessions at this year’s Conference will examine key strategic action areas for orchestras.

There is even music right after the Conference—another reason to linger in Houston. On Saturday afternoon, the Immanuel and Helen Olshan Texas Music Festival will present a free one-hour concert at Jones Hall, under the direction of Music Director and Chief Conductor Franz Anton Krager with piano soloist Vadym Kholodenko, featuring Strauss’s Burleske in D Minor for Piano and Orchestra and Stravinsky’s Firebird Suite (1919 version).

Pre-Conference Seminars and Conference Sessions

Open to everyone for an extra fee, Pre-Conference Seminars on Wednesday afternoon, June 5, and Thursday morning, June 6, will engage participants in four-hour explorations of vital topics:

• Susan Nelson will lead “Budgeting for Financial Success” to help orchestras think about multi-year budgeting as benefits of government funding dissipate and new realities of donor and audience behaviors emerge. What and who should be included to achieve a successful process? The first half of the seminar will use the case study method to demonstrate the principles of multi-year budgeting, and in the second half participants and speakers will discuss specific questions and concerns.
• Ruth Hartt will lead “Rethinking Tradition: Make Your Events More Meaningful, Relevant, and Inclusive” to assist orchestras to continue to work on increasing ticket sales and community relevance as they are engaged in building alignment in their organization around a more customer-centric audience experience. To help accomplish these goals more effectively, this seminar will provide the perspective shift needed to transform approaches to audience development and engagement.
• Kay Sprinkel Grace will lead “The New PPP for Boards—Post-Pandemic Pivot,” which will help build the capacity of orchestra board members and staff to work together on critical areas for re-engagement. This seminar will give tools for governance during times of considerable change as orchestras think about the art they present, how they reflect their community through board membership and organizational culture, and how the renewed need for new philanthropic investors must shape their future.

Following the success of its inaugural year, the Tech Fair returns, free for everyone on Thursday morning, June 6. The League will bring together businesses and administrators to facilitate dialogue about how to use new and existing technologies in marketing, data management and customer relationship management, ticketing, online program notes, audience engagement apps, and more for enhanced experience-building and optimal day-to-day operations. Delegates will gain working knowledge of the options and learn about a variety of technological solutions and how peers are incorporating these innovations.

Sessions at this year’s Conference will focus on four key strategic action areas, outlined in the League’s new Strategic Framework as critical for orchestras’ future:

1. Broadening and redefining audience and community relationships
2. Accelerating the pace of change in equity, diversity, and inclusion
3. Youth development and participation​
4. Financial and organizational sustainability

Experts from inside and outside the orchestra field will lead conversations and participate in panels covering topics that include music and wellness; audience diversification; cultural advocacy; philanthropy and fundraising; leadership; equity, diversity, and inclusion; business models; and AI.

New this year will be a series of one-hour “Discovery Sessions” focused on targeted topics such as planned giving, governance, community engagement, artistic planning and collaborations, and marketing and communications. This new format is in response to Conference evaluation requests to have more interactive opportunities for facilitated cross-constituency and cross-discipline dialogues. Following an initial presentation, participants will be engaged in conversation about the topic, allowing for sharing and discussion and ample time for questions and answers.

Networking and Learning

One of the most valued parts of the Conference, small-group Constituency Meetings gather delegates by peer group constituencies to address their most pressing concerns. Whether you are connected to the orchestra field as an executive director, board member, staff member, conductor, musician, or student, there will be agendas designed specifically for you, as well as special networking events, including those for administrators of African, Latinx, Asian, Arab/Middle Eastern, or Native American descent (ALAANA), and for young professionals.

For the third year, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex, and Asexual (LGBTQIA+) attendees will gather for a networking reception on Thursday evening, June 6, featuring special guest Annise Parker, President and CEO of the LGBTQ Victory Fund and Institute and, as the former mayor of Houston, the first openly LGBTQ mayor of a major American city.

Whether you are an executive director, board member, staff member, conductor, musician, or student, there are Conference agendas designed specifically for you.

The League’s Volunteer Council is planning inspiring sessions and networking opportunities for orchestra volunteers from across the country, including a session with leading fundraising expert Kay Sprinkel Grace on how to rethink, reimagine, and reboot the volunteer experience to attract and retain volunteers. Other activities for volunteers include a session spotlighting the Houston Symphony’s education and community engagement programs; presentations of the 2023 Gold Award of Excellence winners; and a Volunteer Networking dinner on Wednesday evening, June 5, prior to Conference.

As always, the Exhibit Hall will serve as the central gathering point for networking breaks and receptions: a place to reconnect with old friends, make new ones, and visit with Conference exhibitors and sponsors.

Since they say, “Everything is bigger in Texas,” come to Houston this year to discover how rich and deep this year’s Conference is, too!