The Paragon Ragtime Orchestra
An Opportunity Seized!
Dear Friends:
Would you please take a few moments to read this important message from our Executive Director, Leslie Cullen? It's interesting too -
October 29, 2014
Greetings, Everyone!
I am Leslie Cullen, Executive Director of the Paragon Ragtime Orchestra, writing to share with you news of an exciting recent PRO event, and to engage your help in assuring the continuing vitality of our mission.
This is not a short message, but it is as succinct as possible. I ask you please - as a friend to the Orchestra - to save it in your inbox for later reading if you do not have the time now.
Here’s the story:
Last month PRO gave an extremely important demo performance at the Arts Midwest conference in Minneapolis. Arts Midwest is a top U.S. organization of arts presenters, managers, and artists covering the entire vast center of the nation (from the Canadian border down to the Rio Grande, and from Ohio to Nevada!). I attend this and other regional conferences each year, representing Paragon in the “Exhibit Hall,” promoting the PRO to concert presenters (i.e. the "bookers"). This region is critical to all of the Orchestra's touring.
For anyone who cares about excellent music and entertainment, I should explain further what I have seen and heard recently at these conferences: Concert presenters are under increasing financial pressure to fill their seats for every show. Even universities, which used to operate with less concern for sales and more concern for bringing real culture to their communities, are now heavily influenced by the “put butts in seats” mentality. (And yes, that is an actual marketing promise from one arts agency.) Arts conferences used to be dominated by classical music - symphony orchestras, string quartets, and piano soloists. But now they are flooded with pop groups, acrobatic shows, and ethnic drum ensembles – much of which is poor quality, but done with plenty of amplification, fancy lighting, and provocative costumes.
One standard event at these conferences is the opening luncheon. After speeches and before the main course, a group performs a twenty minute demo for all of the attendees – generally close to a thousand people. The performer pays for this captive audience by sponsoring the meal – a hefty price tag, as you can imagine. The demos in recent years has been much as I described, above. At last year’s Arts Midwest conference it was an act called “American Idol Meets Dancing With The Stars.” As I sat there and watched this shallow, slickly-produced fluff, and made up my mind that someday, the Paragon Ragtime Orchestra would perform at one of these luncheons. But the idea made me nervous. We are not highly produced, commercial, or sexy. We simply play American music from the early 1900s better than anybody else. And I was also very anxious about the price tag!
The next available lunch sponsorship was in 2017. I put our name down for it, relived that we would have several years to save up. But a few months ago I got a call from Arts Midwest: the 2014 luncheon slot had opened up. Did we want to grab it? I gulped and said “yes.” It felt like a “GO FOR IT” moment.
The money was scary (see complete financials, below.) And I was still worried that the audience, bombarded with “butts in seats” acts, would listen politely, applaud faintly, and pronounce us to be quaint or charming, in somewhat bored tones.
Far from it! Our performance was a sensation!!!
We kicked it off with a two-minute introductory video, which you can watch here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CV3a11Y4bFc" target="_blank" target="_blank" target="_blank
Then we launched into our live performance, and could feel how enthralled the audience was, from the first note right through to our silent movie finale. The results exceeded our hopes. Throughout the remainder of the conference, we were stopped repeatedly and thanked us for "providing the best showcase performance ever," for "the astoundingly high caliber entertainment," and for "reminding everyone of what great musicianship is all about." We were hugged by total strangers. It is SO heartening to think that people are still able to discern something better than what they have been hearing. And from a business standpoint, the results are equally impressive: Our booth has never been so busy with inquiries about performances. There is much follow-up work to be done, but a good path is now before us.
However, these opportunities will not start to bear fruit until the 2015/16 Season. In the meantime, we have to address the funding gap that this demo performance has created. It was an opportunity seized without a budget to back it up, and the financial return from future dates will not appear for at least a year, and possibly two.
The PRO very much needs your help to keep daily operations moving forward as we recover from this expense – which was the BEST, most important publicity that the group has ever had, and which will help our concert efforts in all parts of the U.S.
So, we need to ask now for your financial support. Can you help? Your tax-deductible donation in any amount can be made online here, http://paragonragtime.com/about/support ... orchestra/" target="_blank" target="_blank" target="_blank . Or you could by mail with a check or money order to “Paragon Ragtime Orchestra,” sent to P.O. Box 247, Lewisburg PA 17837.
Either way, it’s tax-deductible. And with any contribution of $75 or higher you can select a complimentary Paragon CD or DVD, either for yourself or to be sent as a gift to a friend. The list of recordings appears on our website.
Again, whatever you can spare is needed and appreciated, and will go directly to the operating budget. Artistic Director Rick Benjamin and I are forgoing our salaries until Paragon is securely in the black.
Thanks to all of you for you help and kind words. We’re looking forward to keeping this music alive and bringing it to a theater near you soon!
Sincerely,
Leslie
Leslie Cullen
Executive Director