Chris Jones believes that the arts and live entertainment industry should abandon the middle class in favor of serving the high end and the low end. He believes this because this is the way that the rest of the economy is going, in his view, and therefore it’s incumbent for live entertainment to follow suit. The metaphor he uses is the Dollar Tree store, where all kinds of potentially useful and high-quality stuff is sold for a dollar. He asks, …

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Cincinnati is a small market, not known for fabulous wealth or la-di-da citizenry. In 2009, according to this article, the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, like many orchestras nationally, was “facing an existential question” and ” … had to make dramatic course corrections quickly for us to continue on,” according to Trey Devey of the CSO. They focused on growing audiences, not necessarily ticket buyers but those aware and engaged with them in any form, to grow the financial base. They increased …

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