“We knew we wanted to put on concerts that we would want to go to. . . . We also wanted to see ourselves. As a women-led organization, we didn’t see ourselves on stage in traditional concert programming.” -Dana Hotle“Our approach is truly hyper-local. . . . We really try to promote the composers we work with—it’s important part of our artistic output and budget. We feel that this is an important part of our legacy.” -Jennifer Gartley For March, we are featuring Chamber Project Saint Louis as our Entrepreneur of the Month! Chamber Project Saint Louis (CPSTL) is a nonprofit that celebrates the dynamic interactions between all members of the music-making process, from composers to performers to audience members. They strive to reinvent the chamber music experience for modern audiences by bringing intimate concerts to non-traditional venues. Through their commitment to programming music by living composers—especially composers from underrepresented populations and from their local community—CPSTL makes a point of “disrupting the gatekeeping practices that have limited access and representation through generations of classical artists and institutions.”We met with Dana Hotle (clarinet) and Jennifer Gartley (flute), two of CPSTL’s founding members, to talk about what it was like to found a nonprofit and to learn more about how they connect to audiences and collaborate with composers.Several members of Chamber Project Saint Louis are also IU Jacobs School of Music alumni!Check out some of CPSTL’s work here:“Chamber Project grows from upstart to institution” feature on STL Public Radio Virtual Notes From Home: Chamber Project STLFlorence Price string quartet @ 11:30 markMozart clarinet quintet @ 45:00 mark WCHOF Composer Series: Chamber Project of St. LouisJean Emil Cras, Quintet for Flute, harp and strings @ 35:00 mark
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From left to right: CPSTL founders Laura Reycraft, Dana Hotle, Jennifer Gartely
How did you get the idea to start Chamber Project Saint Louis?Dana: We were all musicians just a couple of years out of school. One day we were sitting, talking about chamber music and the music that we liked. We all were noticing that as we were beginning our professional careers, how few opportunities there were to play this music. The gig scene doesn’t support you playing larger pieces, the ‘masterworks’ or similar pieces, that we really wanted to play. And so from there we said “well, let’s do it! Let’s put on a concert.” From there we had meetings to talk about where we wanted to go. We knew that we wanted to put on concerts that we would want to go to that were somehow different from traditional chamber music—a little more casual and informal yet still informative. A big piece of this would be to play in non-traditional venues. I knew we wanted to program more living composers and diverse composers. And, of course, one of our founding members is a saxophonist, so we knew saxophone was going to be a part of it, and that inherently meant the repertoire was going to be different. We also wanted to see ourselves. As a women-led organization, we didn’t see ourselves on stage in traditional concert programming.What are some strategies that you’ve found successful for connecting with audiences? How do you inspire your audiences to trust you and to want to come back again and again?Jennifer: I think the first step is that we listen to them. It’s important to listen to their feedback. Because we’ve been at this for a while now, we have long-standing relationships with our audience members. They have zero filter and let us know how they feel about certain parts of our programming and what they find engaging. This feedback really does inform our perspective when we move into a new season of programming. I think we learn the most from our audiences.Dana: Our audience comes in two packages. You have the aficionados who go to every concert that happens in town. They know all the music, and they like coming to us because we’ll play something they’ve never hear before. And we also have audience members who don’t know anything about classical music at all. It’s a wonderful mixture. I think the way we’ve built trust with both of these groups is that we make it clear from the start that if you don’t like one piece on the program, you’ll probably like the next one. We play many different styles of music, so it’s ok to not like all of it. |
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| Was there anything you tried early on that fell flat, leaving you thinking, “We’ll never do that again!”? Jennifer: One of the biggest things that I learned early on is not to manage a dinner or food on top of managing a chamber music concert. First, your margins are terrible. You don’t walk away with any ticket income, and you’re so stressed out trying to gather all the elements of the event and make them all happen at the same time. I am not an expert in restaurant management, so that doesn’t need to be a thing that I do on top of playing the flute.Dana: Yes, and so now every time someone suggests to us that we should do dinner and a concert, we say, “well, we did that, and it almost killed us.” We do like to have a social component which can include a bar or a reception. But you do learn really quickly that while it may seem fun to play in a bar, you need venues that are dedicated listening spaces where everyone in the room is there to listen. With acoustic music, you can’t override that need.Jennifer: I think another learning curve has been figuring out that not everything on a program needs to be really hard. You can play things that are beautiful and artistically important, music that speaks to the theme for that concert. Think about creating a balanced experience in terms of the rehearsal process. Sometimes we would get so excited about repertoire and end up programming these concerts where every piece required hours upon hours of rehearsal. This was not sustainable. So now I think we do a better job of balancing how many difficult pieces we program per concert.Chamber Project has a strong commitment to performing music written by living composers. Can you tell us about the process of collaborating with composers? How do you make those connections? What’s the process like to commission new music? Dana: Half of the music we play is by living composers, which is awesome! That’s a huge percentage of our programming.Jennifer: Yeah, we’re really interested in the commissioning side of things. This interest has grown as we’ve grown. Our approach is truly hyper-local. St. Louis is interesting because it doesn’t have a big conservatory despite being a large metropolitan area. This leads to somewhat limiting opportunities for composers in the region. So we’re really focused on building infrastructure and long-term relationships with composers; we like to be in an artistic relationship with composers for more than one commission. We’ve worked with composers such as Stephanie Berg and Darwin Aquino over the course of several commissions which has been really interesting because you get to see how their artistic process evolves. We really try to promote the composers we work with—it’s important part of our artistic output and budget. We feel that this is an important part of our legacy.Dana: Audiences also really connect with the music when the composer attends a performance and introduces their piece. They feel like they’re more a part of the artistic process and leave the concert with a better understanding of how the whole system works. |
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| Do you have any advice for securing funding and managing budgets?Jennifer: One of the most beneficial things I ever did was to volunteer to be grant reviewer for different granting organizations. I learned so much through that process about what budgets should look like and how high budgets fall in the overall ranking of grant proposals. It was really helpful for me to watch other panelists go through the grant in a completely different way than I did. The experience taught me how to manage finances for our own projects. Basic accounting skills are really important. When the musicians in your ensemble are connected to the budget, it makes artistic decisions more grounded—everyone knows what is possible and what isn’t.Dana: Yes, you need to build your programming and your budget together. They’re inseparable. An area of professional growth for me is the process of learning how to be sincere about befriending people and asking them for financial support at the same time. But it’s so much less complicated than you think. Simply be kind to people and show them that you care about what they think. I’ve gained a lot of confidence in this since we first started as a nonprofit. Also, keep careful track of your contact list. Make sure it’s up-to-date and thorough. |
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| Is there anything you wish you had learned in school that would have better prepared you for work after graduation?Dana: Since we did not grow up as digital natives, learning how to use a spreadsheet for database management and how to set up our own website were big learning curves. But this whole entrepreneurial focus didn’t exist when we were in school, so we’ve had to learn it all from scratch. It also would have been really helpful if we had been taught how to run a budget.Jennifer: I think people management has been a really important piece of the puzzle. This can be tricky when you work with your friends. You need to be clear about expectations and to back those expectations up. And when you’re working with a lot of people, you need to have systems in place to make sure that all the logistics run smoothly, from booking venues to scheduling rehearsals to distributing music. You don’t realize how much time that’s going to take until you’ve done it a few times. We’ve also learned to use our connections outside of the music world to secure venues and other resources. These are skills that were not addressed in school.Dana: Ultimately, the communication piece is so important. You must communicate really, really clearly. Things get complicated when you’re juggling correspondence between composers, musicians, venue owners, and others. Concerts don’t just happen—you have to do so much work to bring them to life. When you’re in school, so much of the logistics work is done for you; even if you’re putting on a recital you’re just fitting into a machine that’s already running. When you’re creating the machine, it’s totally different.What do you listen to for fun?Jennifer: I’m a huge fan of NPR’s Marketplace. I love that show. I think it’s so informative.Dana: I really like silence. But lately when I want to listen to something, I’ve been really into Afrobeat music. |
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