Randall L. Schieber
CSO Link Up, Ohio Theatre, Columbus Ohio.
The Columbus Symphony has announced the launch of a three-year initiative to increase the accessibility and community outreach of the organization.
The We Are Here for You plan includes free and ticket programs, concerts in rural communities, and outreach to diverse populations.
“We will, over the course of the next three years, be here in ways we never have before to touch the lives of every community member, especially our children in central Ohio,” CSO Executive Director Denise Rehg says.
The new initiative focuses on eliminating two prominent barriers to symphony programming: cost and location.
All performances within the 2021-22 Masterworks series will offer free admission to children ages 6-16. Rehg says that the symphony will increase from 10-12 yearly in-school performances to 20.
CSO will also double the number of it's Young People’s Concerts at the Ohio Theatre for the upcoming season. Those concerts provide grade appropriate performances with lesson guides and low-price tickets. The symphony will provide free tickets to those concerts for all local Title 1 elementary schools, schools with high concentrations of low-income students.
Free tickets will also be available for veterans through a partnership with the Vet Tix Foundation. Similarly, two-ticket vouchers are available for healthcare workers, first responders and frontline employees through Oct. 21.
A number of free concerts will also be presented outside of the traditional concert hall venue. Those concerts will focus on reaching diverse and rural communities historically underserved by the organization.
Photos courtesy of Randall L. Schieber
Columbus Symphony Youth Orchestra, Vern Riffe Center, Columbus Ohio.
“The primary focus is to make sure that the orchestral experience is really brought to people that have never experienced it before,” CSO Development Committee Chair Ross Bridgman says. “I want everybody possible to have the opportunity for that experience.”
CSO has set a target to increase the number of free, on-site engagements at senior living facilities by 30 percent for the 2021-22 season. Additionally, the symphony will perform at least 20 free, small ensemble concerts at local businesses in an effort to improve the mental and physical health of employees coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The symphony as a community asset is providing new ways to support our families to be there for our neighborhoods, to be there for folks who didn’t historically come to places like (the Ohio Theatre),” Columbus City Council President Shannon G. Hardin says. “The symphony is uplifting the idea that accessibility can create life-changing musical and cultural experiences in so many different ways.”
Cameron Carr is an associate editor. Feedback welcome at feedback@cityscenemediagroup.com.
