The Beat

Why world-folk at the Clark succeeds by Seth Rogovoy

(WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass., March 20, 1998) -- When the African Troubadours perform tomorrow night at the Clark Art Institute at 8, they will be bringing down the curtain on "From the Old World to the New," the museum's month-long, world-folk series that has been consistently playing to standing-room-only audiences in its 330-seat auditorium.

The second such venture for the Clark -- following March 1997's "Four Fridays of Folk" -- the program could well serve as a case study in how to present a successful concert series in the Berkshires. Other venues and concert-promoting organizations would do well to study how the Clark has pulled off the near-impossible: staging shows by virtually unknown groups before sold-out audiences in the dead of the winter.

With careful planning and marketing, the Clark has turned what has heretofore been a sure-fire formula for failure into one for unprecedented commercial and artistic success.

By simply examining what is publicly known about how the Clark went about promoting its series, an observer can come up with a few ground rules for successful concert promotion in these parts.

  • DEFINE YOUR MISSION. Be clear both to yourself and your audience what it is you are trying to do. The Clark wisely played to its strengths, and approached its musical programming in much the same way as it does an art exhibition: combining curatorial expertise with a savvy understanding of the need to entertain an audience without preaching to it. The same rule applies to commercial promoters. Whether or not you are an entrepreneur or an educational institution, if you can't define what your role is or who is your target market, you can't sell your product.

  • START BIG AND THEN EXPERIMENT LATER. Last year, the Clark kicked off its winter concert series with big names like John Gorka and Odetta. These shows were relative no-brainers, virtually guaranteed to attract sold-out crowds to the Clark's auditorium, thereby building an audience for this type of new programming at the Clark.

    Following the success of last year's Celtic act, the world-renowned ensemble Solas, this year the museum turned around and booked Anam, an Irish ensemble that is virtually totally unknown in this country, having never released an album here and having never performed on this side of the Atlantic. The result? The show was sold out in advance. Same for Wayfaring Strangers, a group with no recordings and no previous press coverage, a group that had only performed less than a handful of times at one venue in New York City. Nevertheless, the show was sold out before the Eagle even ran a preview article.

  • HIRE PROFESSIONALS WHEN NEEDED. Entering into unknown territory last year, the Clark hired major regional promoter Jordi Herold, the Iron Horse founder and a Berkshire County native, as a consultant to book and help market its first such effort. With the knowledge thus gained from Herold's extensive experience, the Clark was able to do it all in-house this year.

  • PREPARE A BIG LAUNCH WITH PLENTY OF LEAD TIME. Both last year and this year, the Clark had all its ducks lined up by mid-January, allowing for a major announcement of the entire concert series at least six weeks in advance. The impact of such a major announcement cannot be underestimated -- up to half the tickets are often sold on the day they go on sale. The opposite approach -- releasing information in dribs and drabs along the way -- tends to dilute the effectiveness of the message a promoter is trying to convey: that something big and important is taking place. Along those lines....

  • GIVE YOUR PROGRAM A COHERENT FOCUS. This isn't brain surgery. Whether it's "Four Fridays of Folk" or "From the Old World to the New" -- neither of which are "Things Go Better with Coke," frankly -- take a cue from Madison Avenue and from big-city cultural venues where thematic programming is all the rage. Don't just announce a series of discrete events with no apparent connection to each other. Make it a celebration of some sort, as a way of building enthusiasm and brand loyalty among repeat customers.

  • DON'T UNDERESTIMATE THE SOPHISTICATION OF THE BERKSHIRE AUDIENCE. The Berkshires aren't Las Vegas or Florida. There is a highly-educated, musically-literate population here, one that has been terribly underserved in popular music since the heyday of the Music Inn. This audience, which ranges in age from high-schoolers to the original rock 'n' rollers now in their 60s, doesn't want to be patronized. They are ready and willing to be challenged and provoked with cutting-edge music, be it folk, rock, jazz, country, pop or world-beat.

  • PAY ATTENTION TO DETAILS. It's the little things that count. Spell the names of the performers correctly in the publicity for the show (you'd be surprised how flagrantly and how often this simple rule is violated). Be clear about where, when and how tickets are available. Make it easy for people to buy tickets to your shows. Offer discounts for a series subscription. Market shows to groups that might have a special interest in a particular performance. Follow in the tradition of the late, great concert promoter Bill Graham, and make the safety and comfort of your audience your primary concern, so they will want to return to your venue regardless of who is playing. Be sure the rest rooms are clean and operable, that enough coat racks are available, that parking is clearly marked and plentiful, that refreshments are attractive and reasonably priced. And for heaven's sake, let your audience know about upcoming shows at the same venue. You'd be amazed at how many times such an obvious opportunity to market to a captive audience is lost.

    As more experienced concert presenters, including the Studio in Pittsfield and the National Music Center in Lenox, have sometimes had to scramble to get as many as 500 people into their venues to see nationally-known headliners, the Clark's experience with only a slightly smaller house suggests that there is more to selling out than just buying name-brands.

    It probably doesn't hurt to be a well-established cultural force, like the Clark already is, building upon your reputation in one area while trying to branch out into something new. Skeptics might also point out that as a well-endowed non-profit organization, the Clark is more likely to be willing and able to take risks than independent entrepreneurs or less-wealthy non-profits who can't afford to risk a loss.

    But given the results -- the fact that dozens of would-be concertgoers were turned away from the Clark's sold-out shows -- such carping misses the point. It's not the Clark's wealth that made its series a success. Look again at the above checklist. None of those items cost money.

    In the end, the proof is simple. The Clark filled its house in the winter with a series of innovative and exciting performers with little or no name recognition. Anyone who thinks it can't be done anywhere else is just too lazy, too stupid, or too fond of making excuses.

    In tomorrow night's concert, three soloists will talk about and perform traditional music of Morocco, Mali and Uganda. Of the three, the best known is Hassan Hakmoun, a native of Morocco who has performed and recorded with Peter Gabriel, the Kronos Quartet and the late jazzman Don Cherry, and has appeared at Woodstock '94 and on the "Tonight Show." Hakmoun is a master of Gnawa music, a mystical tradition which blends West African rhythms with North African chants and melodies. Hakmoun, who has lived in the U.S. for the last decade, sings, dances and plays the sintir, a three-stringed lute that is probably an ancestor of the American banjo.

    Also on the bill are Yaya Diallo, a percussionist who performs the music of the Minianka people of Mali, and James Makubuya, who plays music of the Bagandan tradition of Uganda on African-style harp, lyre and xylophone. For more information or reservations, call 458-2303, ext. 324.

    [This column originally appeared in the Berkshire Eagle on March 20, 1998. Copyright Seth Rogovoy 1998. All rights reserved.]

    Seth Rogovoy
    rogovoy@berkshire.net
    music news, interviews, reviews, et al.


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