When The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra (SPCO) and Greater Twin Cities Youth Symphonies (GTCYS) formed a strategic alliance last year, one of the expected benefits was greater programmatic collaboration. The partnership is not yet a year old, but many opportunities for collaboration have already been realized. For example, this season the SPCO offered a standing offer of $5 tickets to GTCYS families. To date, 45 students and family members have attended an SPCO concert through this offer. To the SPCO, this has been a great opportunity to introduce new audiences to its music at minimal cost. For GTCYS, it is a valuable way of enhancing the student and family experience. In another example, the SPCO included a free ticket voucher in a GTCYS mailing that was sent to 1200 music teachers. To date, 58 teachers have attended an SPCO concert using these vouchers. Again, this program served as an audience development tool for the SPCO, and by participating in GTCYS’ existing outreach to this group, the costs were extremely low. From GTCYS’ perspective, the vouchers were a great way to thank the music teachers who play such a critical role in their students’ development.

These two organizations, who now share a space in downtown St. Paul and whose staff members now interact on a daily basis, are now able to seize these kinds of opportunities quickly and easily due to this partnership.