Kelley students revitalize BSO

Donna Lafferty cares so much about this project that it brought her to tears.

“I was lucky that when I was in college I was aware of orchestral stuff,” Lafferty said before taking a moment to compose herself. “It has shaped my life, it’s so beautiful and I was one of the lucky ones when I was really young.”

Lafferty is a playing member and the director of marketing and development for the Bloomington Symphony Orchestra. Through an effort spearheaded by a group of Kelley school graduate students, this musical body is getting a bit of a facelift.
Matt Henry and three fellow second-year graduate students have taken the task of revitalizing the BSO as a project for a field consulting class.

The year-long project is focused on bringing awareness to the orchestra and its presence in the community.

“There are faculty members and residents in town who have never really heard of them,” Henry said. “They’re battling for an audience with the Jacobs school. But there are plenty of people here that are interested in classical music.”

For 42 years, Bloomington has known the presence of the BSO as a not-for-profit orchestra formed entirely of volunteer members.
The group’s conductor, Charles Latshaw, said this is what makes it so dynamic
and interesting.

“One thing that makes the BSO really special is its full of volunteer musicians,” Latshaw said. “They do it because they love to, not because they’re getting a paycheck or that they aspire to be professional musicians.”

Henry and his team hope to grow the audience and recognition for these musicians and their craft within the community.

“While students aren’t necessarily their best market right now, that’s the group I’m sure they’d like to see most at their shows,” he said.

Henry has worked with Lafferty to implement social media tools like Facebook and Twitter pages for the BSO in an effort for students to have easier access to the group’s events.

Additionally, the Kelley students are considering the idea of partnering with IU to bring back a BSO tradition, A Night in Old Vienna.

“There were dance numbers played, dinner and ballroom dancing,” Lafferty recalled. “Ballroom dancing club might be interested in revitalizing that and developing a new event centered around dance.”

Whether adopting technology or playing tunes from the big screen, Henry said he hopes to bring younger faces to the seats at upcoming symphonic performances. Latshaw agreed.

“There’s no reason why it has to be all old people,” he said. “Most people haven’t been to an orchestra concert of any kind unless they were dragged there on a third grade field trip. But for most people when they go, it ends up being a really good experience.”

As a 13-year member of the BSO, Lafferty said she has encountered such a feeling more than once and hopes others will, too.

“The orchestra can bring something into their lives that they don’t have already,” she said. “I want to get more people to feel the way that I do about classical music, about orchestras, about
my orchestra.”