March Madness basketball in the concert hall? Cheer for your favorite work.
The Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra sought to create an event related to its city by hosting two rounds of March Madness 06. The orchestra capitalized on the publicity of the NCAA tournament, watching community excitement grow as Florida’s basketball team—the Gators—advanced through the rounds. The JSO sought to recreate the energy and national excitement of the tournament in the concert hall.
By taking the longstanding NCAA tradition of bracketing 64 teams and ranking them for advancement into a Final Four tournament, JSO created a list of 64 staunchly supported highlights from the classical repertoire. In one of the brackets, Elgar’s Enigma Variations ranked number one against Copland’s 16th-ranked Rodeo. The original 64 rankings, selected by audience and approved by Music Director Fabio Mechetti, were narrowed through a series of voting rounds during February and March 2006. The majority of votes were tabulated through the Internet, totaling more than 2,300 votes. An additional 200 votes were collected from audience submissions at concerts. The majority of votes came from Florida, but approximately 10 percent of online voters were out of the state, including Massachusetts, Iowa, and Hawaii. As pieces advanced through the brackets, results were listed on a large display board in the lobby.
“Classical Madness is really heating up. The last round saw some big upsets, including 11th-seed Tchaikovsky's ‘Romeo and Juliet’ beating out 3rd seed Brahms' ‘Symphony No. 1.’ Now into the quarterfinals, some intense battles are going on as crowd favorite Rachmaninoff's ‘Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini’ matches up against Vivaldi's ‘The Four Seasons.’ The lowest seed still in the contest, Tchaikovsky's ‘1812 Overture,’ has hung on to clash with Wagner's ‘Ride of the Valkyries.’
The final four pieces were Beethoven’s Symphony no. 3 (“Eroica”) , Dvorak’s Symphony no. 9 (“From the New World”), Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2, and Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini. All four works were pitted against each other on the final concert . Understandably, only portions of the Beethoven and Dvorak were included. Both Rachmaninoff works were performed by pianist Ian Parker, an athletic feat for any soloist. Local radio personality and master of ceremonies Arthur Crofton maintained the evening’s energy. Crofton nearly kept the crowd on their feet with updates on the Gators’ progress; at intermission, he noted “oh, by the way, 73-58, Gators.” The in-concert voting took place with a decibel meter on stage behind the orchestra. The needle of the meter registered the volume of cheering. Despite tight competition between the two Rachmaninoff works, the final winner was…Piano Concerto No. 2.
Everyone involved agreed that the true winners of the contest were the audience members, who had more fun in the concert hall then ever before. The total number of votes far surpassed the number of seats in the hall. There were several sightings of students writing reviews of the concerts, as instigated by their teachers, and a general feeling that many new faces were present in the audience, along with many regulars.
For further info contact:
http://www.classicalmadness.com
http://www.jaxamericanorchestras.org
Paul Witkowski, Director of Public Relations
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