Nick Tipsword

Company Audit

9/22/2017

Prof. Rueter

Urbana Pops Orchestra

Urbana Pops Orchestra is a non-for profit educational ensemble located in Urbana, IL.

The group consists of roughly 65 musicians, a small artistic staff that works under the conductor,

and a board of directors. This orchestra performs a summer concert series that provides

accessible music to audiences that may not get to see a symphony orchestra perform. The

organization also gives high school musicians the opportunity to audition for the group and

perform next to professional players. The mission statement of Urbana Pops Orchestra is as

follows; “Urbana Pops Orchestra is a locally grown ensemble of music educators, college music

majors, and seasoned community musicians sharing their music stands with talented youth

musicians who audition for a unique music making opportunity. Urbana Pops’ goal is to bring

high quality, popular orchestral music to the community at little or no cost and to nurture

talented young musicians.” Based on this mission statement and my personal experience I

believe the values of this group are to foster community engagement and provide unique

educational opportunities for students, while performing high quality orchestra works.

The Urbana Pops communicates with their publics through many different channels to

accommodate the different audiences they are trying to reach. It is no secret that the majority of

people that attend orchestra concerts and pay attention to community events are people of older

generations. To accommodate this audience the orchestra often advertises concerts on local

television stations and in the past had done interviews on local arts based radio programs that no
longer exists. Throughout the orchestra’s off-season musicians from the group often gives free

recitals at the Urbana Free Library that are always open to the public. Flyers are hung up around

Urbana at local businesses advertising the summer concert series as well as ads in the local

papers in the weeks leading up to the performances. One of the main goals of Urbana Pops

Orchestra is to bring in an audience that doesn’t normally attend symphony orchestra concerts.

They do this by programming accessible literature such as film scores and popular classical

works, but the groups also accesses this audience with their online presence. While this

orchestra is active on most social media platform their most active is their Facebook page. The

page posts several times a week. These posts include: memes, occasional commentary on social

issues, throwbacks to past concerts, features of both student and professional musicians, and

promotions for upcoming events. The group pays close attention to their audience and interacts

with them as much as possible, whether it be interacting with fans in the comment section or

giving shout-outs to fans that have been especially supportive of the orchestra. While their

Facebook page is their most active and successful platform for online interaction they are also

active on Instagram, Twitter, SoundCloud, and YouTube. The Urbana Pops has also recently

began doing a podcast called PopsCast as a way to create a dialogue between music educators,

musicians, and students in the groups and their audience. PopsCast consists of principal

conductor Daniel F. Southerland having a causal intelligent discussion about the arts that can

give their audience an insight to the lives of the individuals that participate in Urbana Pops

Orchestra.

The Urbana Pops is a very responsible group when it comes to their CSR. Being a

community orchestra they are always concerning themselves with how they engage the

community in which they are involved. Because they are a non-profit they cannot pay their
musicians as much as other orchestras in the area can so how they interact with their musicians is

very important to them. They are always trying to make sure their musicians feel appreciated

and respected. Finally, as an arts organization human rights is a very important core value of the

groups. They often address social issues with respectful commentary online.