Beyond the Calendar: Building a Stronger Choral Community
Why your choir should be on community calendars
By: Krystle Hart
Chorus: Encore Vocal Ensemble, Photo Credit: Eric Carroll
Your choir has a concert coming up. You’ve created the flyer, sent the email, posted on social media, and told your singers to spread the word…
But what if your next audience member, prospective singer, or future collaborator simply doesn’t know you exist? That’s where a community calendar can make a difference!
When choirs share their concerts, auditions, workshops, sing-alongs, and other public events on a shared calendar, we aren’t just promoting individual organizations. We’re building awareness of choral music across our entire community.
And that benefits ALL of us.
More People Seeing More Choral Music
A shared community calendar gives audiences a single place to discover what is happening in the choral community.
Someone who loves to sing may discover your audition while looking for another choir’s concert. Someone who attends one ensemble’s performance may discover another group they want to hear. A person who has never attended a choral concert might realize, for the first time, just how much live choral music is happening right here in San Diego.
Every event we add helps tell a bigger story:
There is a vibrant, diverse, and active choral community here, and there is something happening all year long.
It’s Not a Competition!
It’s easy to think of other choirs as competing for the same singers, audience members, donors, or performance opportunities.
But what if we looked at it differently?
What if growing the audience for one choir helped grow the audience for all of us? We have an opportunity to think beyond simply advertising our own concerts. We can start looking for ways to cross-promote and support one another.
For example:
Your choir has a concert coming. Another choir has a concert before yours. Could they include a small ad for your upcoming performance in their program? Could two choirs swap program ads throughout the season?
Could your singers volunteer at another choir's concert and help spread the word about their own upcoming performance?
Could we share social media posts and help introduce each other's audiences to new ensembles?
Could we collaborate on a future performance, workshop, or community singing event?
Could we coordinate concert dates to create opportunities for audiences to attend multiple performances rather than scheduling events against one another? Posting your season dates well in advance helps other groups in your area plan ahead and avoid conflicts!
The possibilities grow when we start thinking of our fellow choirs as partners in building a larger audience for choral music.
What If Your Audience Became Someone Else's Audience, Too?
Imagine someone attends your concert and has a wonderful experience.
They leave thinking, I love live choral music! I want to hear more!
What happens next?..
If we are connected as a community, the answer can be: they find another concert.
That audience member might discover a different choir on the community calendar. They might attend a concert across town. They might eventually audition for another ensemble. They might bring a friend to the next performance.
That's not “losing” an audience member.
That's creating a choral music audience.
The more opportunities people have to experience great singing, the more likely they are to become lifelong supporters of choral music.
Auditions Belong Too!
The same is true for recruiting singers.
Often singers are looking for a choir but do not know where to start. They may not know the names of local ensembles or understand which groups are looking for new members.
Posting your auditions and open/first rehearsals to the community calendar makes your organization easier to discover.
And someone who finds your choir through the calendar may not only become a singer. They may become an audience member, volunteer, donor, board member, or lifelong advocate for your organization.
Building a Culture of Collaboration
A shared calendar is just the beginning.
Once we know what everyone is doing, we can start finding opportunities to help one another.
Could we share risers or sound equipment? Could two organizations coordinate volunteers? Could a choir with extra music stands lend them to another group? Could we recommend a venue, accompanist, conductor, designer?
These may seem like small things, but small acts of collaboration add up!
Our community becomes stronger when we share resources, information, audiences, and ideas.
Why Post to OUR Calendar
When you post your event to the Choral Consortium of San Diego community calendar, you're doing more than adding another date to a website.
You're helping a potential audience member discover choral music.
You're helping a prospective singer find a choir.
You're helping another organization discover a potential collaborator.
You're giving our region a clearer picture of the incredible amount of choral activity happening throughout San Diego and Tijuana.
And you're helping us move from a collection of individual choirs toward something bigger: a connected choral community.
So the next time you schedule a concert, audition, workshop, sing-along, or other public event, add it to the community calendar.
Then take a look at what else is happening.
When more people are singing, listening, attending, volunteering, and supporting choral music, our entire community wins.
