The plan Fan Ning proposed at this time was three times more expensive than before!
The highest price for a premium ticket is 18 pounds! No wonder the old professor was so frightened that he said "the show will be performed in front of an empty audience".
Generally, the attendance rate is less than or equal to 30%, and it is called an "empty venue" in the Tioline industry. This is naturally a bit exaggerated, but the fact is that if it falls below this line, the look and feel of the venue will be very ugly, and the number of people will
It is sparse and there are large tracts of vacancies, even on the first floor.
Even at the premiere of the Ninth Symphony, which was the most failed performance in Professor Anton Konard's life, the attendance rate was close to 60%, but later on, another 10% of the audience left the venue midway.
The enthusiasm of many media for reporting on such "empty performances" accidents is on the same level as reporting on serial murders, urban legends, and sexy news. Even some media that do not pay attention to the music field on weekdays have no interest in reporting on successful performances.
When something like this happens, all kinds of news, big and small, come out.
Alas, this guy is too young. He may have artistic talent and general performance experience, but he doesn’t understand commercial acting at all.
Commons decided to educate Fanning on some of the most basic common sense issues in the music industry.
So he asked: "Professor Fanning, do you know the highest ticket price for our Dean Gould's last tour before his death?"
"It's 12 pounds. I also bought two at the New Year's concert," Fan Ning said. "They were piano solos, and the price range is different from the symphony."
As a piano master, Dean Gould’s pricing is relatively expensive in the range of piano solo concerts. It seems to be only equivalent to a mid-level professional symphony orchestra, but if the box office revenue is calculated based on per capita benefit, he has created
The economic value is much greater than that of a single musician.
"Okay, then do you know what the highest price of the Royal Academy of Music Symphony Orchestra's commercial performance last year was?" Professor Commons asked again.
"It's also 12 pounds." Fan Ning continued to answer as usual, "As a top student orchestra, their level is already better than many mid-level professional orchestras."
"You know so clearly, why do you still make such an outrageous suggestion of 18 pounds?" the old conductor said with increasing annoyance.
"The Empire's most prestigious Santa Ramburg Philharmonic Orchestra, the exclusive ticket price is only more than 20 pounds, and you are a student orchestra??" The old conductor waved his hands repeatedly, and the wrinkles on his face were squeezed together,
"Professor Fan Ning, don't discuss this issue anymore. According to the original plan, maintain the attendance rate. Don't blindly compete with those schools for box office. The most important thing for us is to fill the audience as much as possible."
Among the evaluation indicators for the ranking of student orchestras of the Imperial Culture and Media Committee, hardware construction and daily activities account for 30%, and the commercial performance of the Summer Art Festival accounts for 70%. The calculation of the "market value" of the latter is a comprehensive consideration.
"Attendance rate" and "box office revenue" are two factors.
This is very reasonable. If you only look at the "occupancy rate", you can set the ticket price at 1 shilling. I'm afraid it will be sold out on the first day.
And if we only look at "box office revenue", if a rich and good-hearted "scammer" appears and sets the ticket price at tens of thousands of pounds, and then just buys one to watch the performance, it may not be enough for this company in the quantitative evaluation stage.
The band gives high scores? I'm afraid it's going to cause a big and funny scandal.
Only when the two factors restrict each other can an objective evaluation be made.
Commons pursues attendance so conservatively not only to protect the reputation of the school, but also out of motivation to protect students——
Many students have never experienced commercial performances. Although they have performance experience, they are performances for public welfare or internal activities, such as graduation concerts, and the audience is basically lively.
And if a business performance that has been prepared with all the effort is found to be empty when the audience goes on stage, this scene will be unbearable even for some professional musicians. For students who are full of enthusiasm and wishful thinking and have high expectations, the blow will be even greater.
, maybe it will leave a psychological shadow at the beginning of your artistic career.
Self-confidence is so important for performers.
Fan Ning shook his head: "Professor Commons, if we follow the current plan, our box office ceiling will only be close to 9,000 pounds, so I have no room to rush forward and give up the 'market value' as a large indicator.
Competition, just based on the quality of the performance and the response from the music industry, the certainty of getting the first place in the ranking evaluation is less than 30%."
The old conductor's eyes widened: "Why are you still thinking about ranking against those three giants? Are you still 30% sure?"
Fan Ning crossed his arms and smiled: "If you give up the box office competition, it will be 30%. According to my plan, it will be 90%."
His self-confidence was not given by himself. In less than two months, even if he could raise the level of the orchestra, there was no guarantee that it would be better than the Royal Conservatory of Music and the Theoline National Conservatory of Music.
.
The Santa Lenia Symphony Orchestra's performance level, which he considered worrisome, had been "accumulated" for a long time.
Fanning's confidence comes from Master Mendelssohn.
Throwing the Romantic master's most famous "Violin Concerto in E minor" to a student orchestra's commercial performance to compare the popularity, this was a more "dimensionality-reducing blow" than playing the "Fantasy Impromptu" himself at the time - Mendelssohn and
There is no distinction between Chopin and Chopin, but a carefully composed large-scale orchestral work has more impact than a brilliant piano piece.
He could almost imagine that when the melody under Xilan's bow came out, the whole audience would feel numb.
Of course there's a problem here: it's the premiere at the Summer Arts Festival.
The premiere means that music fans have not been able to see it before. How to release some of its charm in advance so that everyone is still not satisfied, crazy for tickets, eager to hear the whole song, this may require some thinking.
Professor Commons was sitting in front of his desk at the moment, holding the edge of the desk tightly with his hands, his eyes full of uncertainty.
Seeing the old conductor's appearance, Fan Ning couldn't help but feel a little amused secretly. He hit the track while the iron was hot: "Look, the repertoire has been confirmed to have been changed anyway. Do you really not want to try anything about pricing? Don't worry, even if you have the worst luck,
I also guarantee that the ranking will be improved compared to the current situation."
"Dong dong", a staff member knocked on the door and handed over a pile of thick signatures - this is the workload that Professor Commons will review as soon as he gets to work today.
The old professor suddenly sat up straight as if he had made up his mind: "Professor Fan Ning, since you have conveyed your goals and confidence that are consistent with the interests of the orchestra, I will temporarily adopt your opinion and report to the principal, but you must
clear"
Speaking of this, his expression became very serious, "In a few days, I will take a look at your rehearsal results and whether the violin concerto you wrote can really meet my expectations. If you are just blindly pursuing high goals,
, even if you are collectively appointed by the school's senior management, I will go to them to complain and request that your change be withdrawn. I will never allow students to suffer serious frustration during performances."
"My classmates who have performed with me have only experienced 'serious' pleasure."
Fan Ning responded with a smile, lowered his head to look at his pocket watch, and then closed it with a "snap": "The time is almost up, I'm going to meet with the members first. These days are the semi-annual musician assessment period, right."
Carrying his briefcase and walking to the door of the office, he turned back: "By the way, Professor, in this case, please give me sufficient authority when it comes to band rehearsal style, assessment mechanism, position adjustment and other issues."
"Okay, okay, you can go ahead." Professor Commons waved the pen with a grimace. His face had already been buried in the thick pile of signatures, but his mind was distracted again and again.
Wait, what happened?
He first agreed to replace Gilles's "Third Symphony" in the second half, and then agreed to replace the first half with a violin concerto he wrote for the premiere? Then he agreed to a ticket discount plan that was three times the original price?? In the end, he still acquiesced.
In order to let him arrange the assessment and adjustment of the musicians???
...Damn it. The more Commons thought about it, the more something was wrong. After muttering this sentence in a low voice, he raised his voice and shouted: "...Fan Ning, please don't mess around with major personnel issues involving the withdrawal of personnel and the appointment and removal of the chief executive!"
"My adjustments are limited to this concert." The voice of the young associate professor came from far away in the corridor.
The old conductor felt a little relieved. When he lowered his head, he saw that the pen tip that landed on the paper had brought out a large pool of ink.
“…crazy, crazy…these changes are so crazy…”
…
The semi-circular rehearsal room is brightly lit by gas lights, and the uneven wooden walls and smooth wooden floors all scatter a soft orange light.
Today is the meeting time with the official members and the semi-annual assessment. The students carry instruments and enter the venue in twos and threes. Among them are a few familiar faces to Fan Ning. They participated in the premiere of "Symphony No. 1" in the square.
More than ten official members.
When the graduation concert was re-performed later, although Fan Ning could mobilize all the official members, except for individual adjustments, he still chose the original cast for the premiere in the square, so at this time he was not familiar with most of the students here.
But basically everyone knows him.
People who passed by him and greeted him would blurt out their names from time to time and then quickly change their titles.
"Good morning, Mr. Fan Ning." Roy, who was wearing a goose-yellow dress, had already sat down. When he saw Fan Ning come in, he went up to him to say hello, and then whispered: "I have brought you what you asked for last night.
Here we come.”
"Good morning, I'll look for you after the show." Fan Ning's eyes showed gratitude.
"Professor Fan Ning, I am the newly hired command assistant Kaplan. Please give me your advice."
Fan Ning turned around following the sound and saw a man wearing a black formal suit, a blue bow tie, and black-rimmed glasses.
His entire body of clothing, watches, glasses and other items all reveal an expensive and high-end quality. The pen cap sticking out of his breast pocket is shining with gold, but his whole body is slightly puffy, his face is haggard, and his hairline is too far back.
...This doesn't look like he just graduated a few years ago. I guess he is almost ten years older than me, right?
Fan Ning wanted to think about it, but responded with a smile: "Hello Kaplan, I hope we can have a pleasant cooperation in the future... Were you from the conducting department before? Or the composition department or something?"
"I major in finance." Kaplan replied politely.
"..." Fan Ning's smile froze. During this period, Kaplan's self-introduction continued, "I used to work in the financial center of the Tulip Parish in St. Taranburg. You may have heard of the magazine "Institution" I founded.
"Investors", which is a popular read on the Santa Ramburg Stock Exchange..."
Fan Ning listened in stunned silence, then coughed slightly: "Um, how long have you been studying music?"
To be continued...