Your mission: Design an innovative community engagement program to be performed in Brooklyn in
collaboration with a partnering company that is based or founded in Brooklyn.
The idea is to focus on how you can engage a targeted population (one company’s employees, owners and
customers) with a specific performance. It is to create a program that actively engages the company’s
audience members so that they can participate in the performance and have a meaningful experience.
As musicians, part of our job is to help audience members to have a meaningful experience with the music we
perform—and for many in our audiences, it may be the first time they have experienced a live classical, jazz or
new music performance.
Step 1: Choose one of the performances listed for the Celebrity Series in Boston between Nov. 7-Jan. 30
Read about the program repertoire and make a list of non-musical ideas these pieces suggest or connect to.
This will help as you . . .
Step 2: Choose a partnering Brooklyn company where this performance is going to take place. The company
must be based in (or founded in) Brooklyn. It’s easy to find lists of companies online so read about ones that
interest you—go to the company’s website and read about what they do, how many employees they have, and
think about what kinds of connections you can make between the performance, performers and this company.
Step 3: Design at least 5 creative ways to connect the program to the company’s employees, owners, and
customers. Try to:
• Re-think what a concert is (time, setting, seating, length).
• Re-think the performer / audience relationship—how can they connect and interact?
Think about what types of alternative performances you could bring to the company, and focus on how you
can create interest in advance of the performance. Be creative about ways to engage the company’s
employees, owners and customers.
• NOTE: Do not select beverage, food or music-related companies as we are looking for you to stretch your
imagination and create more inventive partnerships.
• Your rehearsals and concerts are opportunities to build relationships with each community partner.
• Focus on how you can create interest before the “main stage” performance, and how the company’s
employees, owners and customers can be engaged.
For example, if the concert program included fugues and your partnering company were an architectural firm,
here are three possible ways to connect the company with the performance and to create interest before the
concert:
1. In the weeks before the performance, launch a contest within the company to draw the structure of a fugue
(as a diagram or building). Have the performers and company CEO choose the winner who will get to
introduce one piece of the program.
2. Have employees submit photos of buildings whose structure suggests a fugue. Anyone who submits a photo
gets a recording of the performers.
3. Add a dance troupe to perform the visual depiction of a fugue as part of the performance.
In terms of the format, write 2 paragraphs and then itemize your 5 engagement ideas:
A. State which performance you’ve chosen from the Celebrity Series roster (list the performers repertoire).
B. State what Brooklyn company you’ve chosen as your community partner and give some background
about the company: what is it product, why you chose them, details about their size and/or scope, what
kind of space they have for possible performance activities, who their customers are, etc.
Detail at least 5 ways to connect the program to the company’s employees, owners, and customers. Number
these 1-5 and for each go into real detail so that it’s clear how each event will work, what will happen, who’s
involved, and what you expect the results and benefits to be
