Omaha Chamber Music Society

Music at Midday on hiatus

In order to focus our energies, the Board of Directors voted last fall to suspend Music at Midday until further notice.

Suspending our longest running series was a tough call, but the move has been a long time coming. Attendances have stagnated, and promoting the series has been difficult for our time-strapped volunteer staff. Throughout the series' run, musicians have always donated their performances. After forty-four concerts, we also felt artistically that sharing musicians' talents and goodwill for dwindling audiences would not be in anyone's best interests. In the future, when we resume Music at Midday or a similar series of free and informal public concerts, we will do so with targeted audiences such as schoolchildren, more consistent and timely advertising, adequately paid artists, and more aggressive funding to support such an important part of Omaha's daytime culture.

All of us on the OCMS staff have been sad not to see the familiar and loyal faces of our Midday audiences as much this year. I know that many musicians yet would have loved to continue playing for free to such appreciative listeners in an informal setting. But part of Midday's original purpose was outreach and education for listeners with less chamber music exposure. While we regulars regretted the loss this year, the true loss for a few years now has been the lack of new audiences attending. Outreach and education will remain our main impetuses for what we do outside our summer series.

Ross Snyder
Executive Director

To comment on the above article,
call the Society at 402-561-0091, or email ross@omahachambermusic.org