Music to Our Ears (Editorial)

A rendering of the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra's Stella Boyle Smith Music Center, planned for Little Rock's East Village neighborhood (Witsell Evans Rasco Architects)

You don’t have to love classical music — although some of us do — to take pride in the opening earlier this month of the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra Stella Boyle Smith Music Center in Little Rock’s East Village.

The $11.75 million, 20,000-SF center illustrates both the vibrancy of the ASO and the continued development of a part of Little Rock, east of Interstate 30, that was once slightly seedy and derelict but is now brimming with new life and new businesses.

The opening came 10 days after a New York Times article about symphony orchestras employing new business models such as monthly memberships, much like Netflix. Memberships allow users to attend however often they’d like, without committing to particular performances, as subscriptions do.

Among them is the ASO, which started its membership program in 2017. The program has grown rapidly, The Times reported: “Today, memberships for the Arkansas Symphony have a retention rate of 96 percent, compared with 75 percent for subscriptions.”

We wish the ASO every success as it continues to demonstrate its forward thinking approach to classical music, and we’ll give the last word to ASO CEO Christina Littlejohn: “It’s about the community. That’s what matters.”