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Granted, I haven't attended a CSO performance in years, but the program choices never seemed to be a problem for me. Do they not still pair more eccentric pieces with traditional ones?

Symphonies are getting hit hard all across the country and it's pretty safe to say that their audience is aging. It's not just younger generations either. Many baby-boomers have little interest in spending a Friday night at the Tivoli too.

If I may be so bold, I'd like to add 2 items to the CSO to-do list. First, better marketing. It's kind of hard to get jazzed about something when it's presented as a laundry list of performances. There's very little attention placed on a specific event. No hype. No excitement. No "I gotta go to that" factor. Maybe I'm just not aware of it, but that's kinda my point. I'm a target-customer. I love all kinds of music and just last night was talking about how important Bach is to Western music. Yet I have no idea what the CSO performed this year. That's a problem and it's not mine.

Second, improve the image of the Tivoli. Its location puts it out of eyeshot of most downtown entertainment attractions. The Tivoli is not a place people go to. They don't think about it. And they don't wonder what's going on there.

The CSO is a GREAT institution (I can't stress that enough), but it's becoming increasingly irrelevant to the course of Chattanooga nightlife. And I think the only way it can improve its situation is to do a complete 180 with the public.

I think the venue is fine. But the CSO's largely "donor-approved setlist," if you will, gets tired.

...especially since I think many folks go to the symphony not so much to hear the music as they do to "go to the symphony" and all that entails: being seen, looking important, talking about being seen while looking important, etc.

They've heard it all before.

Of course, if the music was more "out there," even FEWER people would go, so, basically, I am no help.

Both of you make valid points. But in terms of repertoire, I'm not so much looking for "out there" as I have this hunch/dream/hope that there is new concert music that might be better described as "in there." Different, new, fresh; but accessible, vibrant, a little daring sometimes (it's art after all), but not "weird" or "academic-sounding."

Maybe I'll have to get the staff paper out and get to work on something…

In terms of marketing, I have seen improvements lately, but there is still more to be done, for certain.

And Bill, to your point about not going to hear the music: that is so true. If the audience were truly listening, they'd demand some changes, if not in the program, at least in the musicianship. I'm not putting down the players, as several are my good friends; I'm just saying that some don't always put enough energy into making a quality performance, for a variety of reasons. And some of them, I'm sure, just don't care. But they don't care because the audience isn't listening.

The venue is fine in terms of its construction, equipment, sound quality, etc. But its location is less than ideal. And speaking for my social circles, it stays off the radar. I haven't attended a single event there in 7 years. That includes Ben Folds, Dwight Yoakam and Allison Krauss - all of which I love.

But yeah, if putting butts in the seats doesn't pay their bills, then they have a serious problem on their hands. Donors are fickle.

One thing that would help re the location is for the rest of the Central Business District to come along with a few other places for social activity. I know there are plans, but I'm impatient. And some of those plans don't cover all that is needed, perhaps.

Agreed. I certainly hope Sasse can turn it around for them.

BTW, I just discovered that they performed Beethoven's 5th this season.

I've attended a bunch of shows at the Tivoli. I think any "issues" the venue has are separate from the CSO's issues.

In terms of non-symphonic events, I have a quick, simple way for the Tivoli to be more on the radar of your "social circles": They need to let you bring beer to your seat. And I don't even drink.

Everything else will follow.

Issues of Venue: For sure. They have very little to do with the CSO, but the Symphony still has to overcome them as long as they perform there.

Bringing beer to your seat would be a huge improvement. They would sale twice as much alcohol too.

what's wrong with the location? where do you think a better location would be? seems fine to me, but then again I work downtown and see it pretty much every day.

I don't want anyone to think I'm being defensive at all. I am the Marketing Manager of the CSO though and I just have to say that the marketing budget was cut in half before our season and then cut substantially as the season progressed. We have very little to "market" with! I try to do as much free stuff as I can, but pretty much everything that is really "seen" costs money. I hope to come up with some creative things for next season (our 75th anniversary) though. Again, I'm not being defensive, I just wanted you to know I would be everywhere if I had the budget. I could write a novel about this problem, but I'll leave it here to try to keep it short.

And the revenue from tickets only covers about 1/3 of our operating costs. We would have to charge triple what we do now for tickets to cover everything (and we reduced our operating expenses this season as well), and that's why we have to depend so much on donors.

We are constantly pushing the Tivoli for improvements, but I think it has more weight when it comes from the public. Please contact the City of Chattanooga with your complaints and suggestions. It really helps us a lot!

I appreciate the comments and I'm copying this to keep for our information (this is like a free qualitative survey for me). It's good to know people are talking about us at least! I just wanted to give you a comment from the "inside" to address some of the concerns listed above.