Phoenix Chorale

PART ONE of Strategic Planning work has been conducted in 2022-23.
Starting point AHA:
The previous Mission & Vision had been achieved years prior:
"The Phoenix Chorale will be the preeminent model for American Choral music, gaining local prominence and international renown by redefining standards of excellence."
The problem to be solved when it was set decades ago, was to fill a gap in quality that was perceived between professional music making in the USA vs Europe, and to prove that an American choir could hold its own in the international choral field.

We identified:
- many fine recording and touring groups now operate in the USA.
- the lens of 'excellence' applied only to the Western Classical tradition, and did not reflect a higher purpose or WHY or the uniqueness of our sound.
- our self-imposed limitation on hiring only local Arizona artists IS values-driven and should be reflected in our mission.
- if we hire locally, we are in fact symbiotic with the health of choral training in the State.
- we disproportionately deliver and represent the professional choral art in Phoenix because of the lack of other professional choirs based here performing at this standard, so serving Phoenix has to be core to what we do.
- our WHY should not be competitive, we serve.

The Board defined our WHY:
Phoenix Chorale creates shared human experiences through choral music that resonate within.

And New MISSION:
To nurture and amplify the strength & resonance of Arizona's Choral Artistry.

Primary Short-Term Goal 2021-22: Reset & Rebuild
Factor 1- A new Artistic Leader appointed in 2019-2020 Season that was interrupted. Pandemic.
Factor 2 - Full exec/admin team turnover during pandemic, lack of institutional knowledge
Evaluation of inherited platforms, software, systems, data, artistic 'norms'

2022-23+
- Re-establish the awareness of, and admiration for, professional choral music-making in Arizona
- Ensure that our singer pipeline is strong
- Rebuild audiences lost since the pandemic
- Restore donor confidence in new team
- Move Board mode from 'rescue' to 'strategy & growth' focus

Recording:
Restore our recording frequency, with our new label Signum Records, funded by donations

Singer Pipeline:
Actively build deeper collaborations with the State university college programs

Audience Restoration & Growth
PR - create more points of interest
Data-centric marketing: clean up lists, look-alike matching & profiling, behavioral targeting (who left the house to go to something else?)
Secular arts spaces, not just churches - test these out
Higher production values - orchestra, visuals etc - test these out

Our singers are led by an Artistic Director who has worked for decades at the top of the choral world, highly experienced in performing, touring and album recording.

Our ED has an extensive background in brand marketing and is capable of honestly benchmarking ourselves within the industry.

Board recruitment wave in 2022-23 has brought in expertise in Financial analysis, Arts Publicity and HR, who are ready to focus on financial sustainability, advocacy and growth.

We have completed our first recording with Signum and it will be released Fall 2023, another recording session is planned for January 2024.

In March 2023, two performances were held at Phoenix Art Museum featuring orchestra, projected animated art - a massive step-change in production values (with a compromise in acoustics). These two performances sold-out with no comps or discounting, attracted wider PR, and inspired younger and more diverse audience. It was also unaffordable and unsustainable cost-wise. As an experiment to inform strategic planning, we learned that a residency or co-production model with host venues such as this, or via major corporate funding, would be the only feasible way to do again.

CRM data has undergone a massive cleaning operation in Summer 2023 and we have performed profiling work with Experian data on our current list. We are in shape to be able to do more segmented development work in 2023-24 to better steward donors.