On the Record (and in the News)
Over the years I’ve appeared in the press from time-to-time. Here are a few highlights.
OPERA AMERICA MAGAZINE: ACCENT ON YOUTH
February 26, 2019
Kids’ Club… addresses a central dilemma for the parents in the Gen X/Millennial contingent: the question of what to do with the kids… “Kids’ Club effectively builds inter-generational bridges around the work,” says Joe Gfaller. “It creates a culture of arts engagement within families. By connecting people to one another, it advances our company’s mission in a meaningful way.”
Wallace foundation: building audiences for sustainability case study
November 29, 2018
The conclusion was clear, says Joe Gfaller, the company’s director of marketing and public relations: “We need to bring in multiple new households to replace any one existing household that we might lose… For these programs to be sustainable, we need to think more broadly about what it means to bring new audiences into the fold and not have too narrow a mindset.”
WNET Television: Building audiences for Sustainability case study
November 29, 2018
“There was a lot of research that showed us the preconceived notions of opera,” said Director of Marketing and Public Relations Joe Gfaller. “There was a perception gap between what they expected our company to be and what we actually were.”
“If we cast a homogeneous group of largely white singers, that is actually a potential barrier for young audiences to want to participate in coming.”
Fox 2 News: Taste and see: Explore opera tastings across st. louis
March 11, 2018
“The goal is to pair the flavors of the music with flavors of fun food and drink. And, with great culinary partners like Chef Luke at Moulin, for the last four years we’ve been able to introduce hundreds of new people to opera through this fun combination.”
“It’s very lively, it’s very interactive… and it doesn’t hurt that there are great cocktails and wine getting paired along with delicious food… People leave feeling really satisfied.”
Christian science monitor: with festivals and tastings, opera companies seek ways to retain audience interest
October 31, 2017
In many cases, these creative strategies have succeeded in drawing new audiences. But now opera companies are facing the next hurdle: How to get those audiences to come back.
“As an industry, that’s where we need to work even harder. There’s a lot of great things happening to get new audiences in for the first time,” says Joe Gfaller… “But we’ve not yet worked out the calculus as how to get larger numbers of first time opera-goers to become repeat opera-goers.” …
OTSL has found that… at a more traditional performance, only 1 in 5 members of the audience is younger than 50, and only 1 in 10 is nonwhite… Among newcomers, one-third of those audience members are younger than 50 and the number of nonwhite audience members doubles.
eq Magazine:opera theatre saint louis engages start ups with special events geared toward innovation community
May 8, 2017
The Tastings were the brainchild of OTSL Director of Marketing Joe Gfaller…: “One of our main goals is getting people to recognize how accessible opera is. At an event like this, we are meeting people where they are, and we’re pairing music with something that is fun and a little bit different as a first point of entry.”
“Cortex is incredibly important for anyone looking at moving whatever they are doing forward… Every season we present [new work]… that pushes the art form of opera forward in the same way that I think a lot of the businesses and entrepreneurs that are a part of the Cortex community are looking to push their own industries forward. So, it’s a natural opportunity to connect with like-minded people in a space that’s a home for such incredible innovation, ideas and talent.”
alive Magazine: opera theatre of saint louis hosts opera tastings
January 23, 2017
Here’s how Joe Gfaller… describes the immediacy of opera as an art form: “Someone’s standing on stage, and they’re filling the room without a microphone. Their voice is just that powerful. To hear someone sing like that in a small venue is remarkable. You can feel it in your skin.”
Gfaller was inspired by pop-up events in other cities that had opera singers show up to a restaurant or bar to sing, but aimed to create a highly crafted experience in which context created additional meaning… The experience is a highly curated show, which takes into account everything from the venue to the relationship between the set list and corresponding food and drink.
MUSICAL AMERICA: MOBILE AND LIVE PERFORMANCE: A NOT IMPERFECT UNION
November 1, 2016
The Twitter stream has included as many as 1,200 tweets during a single performance. In 2014, the OTSL staging of The Magic Flute, directed and designed by famous fashion designer Isaac Mizrahi, even drew a response from Mizrahi himself. “Given Isaac Mizrahi’s reach on Twitter, that meant that hashtag #otslflute went out to tens of thousands of his followers very quickly,” Gfaller says.
arts & Education Council: Arts marketers meet to discuss ‘engaging young friends and new audiences’
September 24, 2014
Gfaller opened the presentation talking about… finding success in marketing by leveraging existing programs to build new opportunities, taking some risks, reaching out to new audiences rather than waiting for them to come to your organization, and the importance of buy-in on a project throughout an organization…
The second case study Gfaller talked about was the live tweeting of certain OTSL performances… The Magic Flute live tweeting event reached over 1.4 million people and was the number three trending topic in the St. Louis area that night…
Overall, Gfaller emphasized that all of these programs were created to reach a target audience and really catered to the customer and their needs. Finding this need in customers and filling it is one of the best marketing strategies that arts marketers can use.
St. louis post-dispatch: opera theatre reaches out to gay community with ‘champion’
June 15, 2013
Gay advocates who have been a part of the process think the opera can help to open hearts and minds.
“This project aligned so beautifully with our broader efforts for engagement and inclusion,” said OTSL marketing director Joe Gfaller, who has coordinated those efforts. “We’re committed to building an audience as rich in diversity as our community is here in St. Louis, and the LGBT community is certainly part of that.”
Alice Tejada is the president of Team St. Louis, a group dedicated to LGBT participation in local, national and international sporting competitions… Learning about Champion has overturned some of her own assumptions, Tejada observed, including what opera singers look like (white, overweight) and who attends operas (wealthy older people)… She said she thinks that Champion “will initiate conversation for theatregoers. With dialogue and conversation come understanding. Open your eyes and ears a little bit, and we can work from there.”
Bockelman, of PROMO, agrees. “I think the arts can play a part in educating the public… This is a great, great story, and it’s going to help break down barriers.”
duke university faith and leadership: opera theatre of saint louis connects people through art
June 16, 2015
Joe Gfaller… said that many of the company’s approaches that seem different and innovative are actually consistent with or even a return to the roots of opera. Singing operas in the audience’s language and performing in small venues are not new developments but typical features of 19th-century opera, he said…
Efforts to expand the fan base include several programs designed to attract younger generations… As those people become opera fans, they in turn spread the enthusiasm to others, recruiting even more new fans. A 30-member Young Friends steering committee serves as an advocate for the company and for opera, helping to create a network of people who are inspired and empowered to reach others, Gfaller said.