We worked so hard...but no one comes to appreciate our hard work!

Somehow, this always seems to be a struggle for music directors. We put in hours upon hours of work, only to see a dismal showing of an audience for the concert. How can we fix this?

Here's my take on a few different ways.

The first thing to look at is are you advertising the concert?

Yes: That's a good start, but maybe you can do more. Try involving the art department to make posters, involve some of your students that have an art background to make posters, have small choirs sing invitations at lunch time, have small jazz trios or quartets play at lunch and make announcements, invite either the middle school or elementary school to come check it out free of charge (what a great way to recruit too!). The list goes on and on but these are some of the ideas I have.
No: Start advertising now! ...and see the above ideas...

Do you have a bunch of small chamber concerts or a few big ones?

This is one that you can experiment with. If you have a bunch of small group, short concerts with either just choir or just band, maybe you can combine them so you have the friends and families of each of the ensembles. This could in theory, if the ensembles are the same size, double your audience. On the other side of it, if you do just large concerts, maybe you could try doing smaller showcases. It would allow each group to play more pieces and at the same time, it may draw more people because its music they want to listen to instead of music they have to listen to.

Invite guest artists or soloists

I've seen a few schools invite in guest groups to play a concert with jazz ensembles. The high school ensemble would go on stage first and play their set list. Then, a jazz group like Tower of Power would come out in the second half and play a concert. After all of that, the high school ensemble was able to get on stage and perform with Tower of Power. What a great experience for not only your students for the chance to play with such an iconic group, but also a way to draw more people from the area who may not have attended otherwise. It's also a great way to expose a group other than a marching band to the town so they can appreciate all the hard work that you put in as an ensemble.

Do a combination art show and chamber concert.

Team up with the art department at your school and plan an event. If you use a multitude of rooms in the school, you can have different "galleries" open at different times of the night. In each gallery, have a different small ensemble or choir performing. This could be barbershop groups, jazz choirs, a cappella choir, jazz trios, brass quintets, woodwind quintets, etc. By staggering the times that galleries are open, it will ensure that individuals pay closer attention to not only the artwork in each gallery, but the group that is performing as well.

These are just some of my thoughts as to how we can improve our audiences and provide our children with a better experience. Please feel free to let me know if you have tried anything like this and what was the end result.