WRITTEN BY EMILY WILLIAMS, STAFF REPORTER
A combined concert means a combined audience of various Butler University School of Music supporters.
A combined concert in the Schrott Center means that there is a real possibility of more people wanting to hear the concert than seats available in the Schrott Center, Robert Grechesky, director of the university wind ensemble said.
Every fall, the school of music produces a showcase concert featuring its large ensembles.
The concert has traditionally been held in Clowes Memorial Hall, which seats more than 2,000 people—plenty of room for those wanting to hear the percussion ensemble, wind ensemble, jazz ensemble and chorale.
This year though, the event will be held in the Schrott Center, on Sept. 15 at 3 p.m. The problem: the Schrott Center seats less than 500 people.
Clowes Hall is not typically filled to capacity for a showcase concert. But the Schrott Center only holds a quarter of what Clowes does.
This is also the first showcase concert for which paid admission is required.
“When scheduling the showcase, (JCA administrators) didn’t think it through, that there is going to be a space issue,” Grechesky said.
“The Schrott Center is a wonderful place with a great (acoustic) shell, and the stage is magnificent. But we have to be careful when we program. The capacity is only 440.”
Aaron Hurt, assistant operations manager, said it was premature to say that the problem exists before the first event happens.
Freshman business major Katie Yackey said if there do turn out to be fewer seats available than are sought, it would be frustrating to parents and friends of performers because tickets will sell out quickly.
Matt Pivec, director of the jazz ensemble, said finding a good balance with the amount of space is hard but he had not heard about overcrowding one way or the other.
“It’s difficult because in Clowes you can have a decent crowd, but it doesn’t feel like a decent crowd because it’s huge,” he said. “It’s very difficult to get a good ratio between audience members and number of seats available.”
Grechesky said the first concert in a new system is bound to have some bumps. “The more you do it, more people get used to the system and figure it out for next year,” he said.
In the meantime, he said he recommends buying tickets early for the concert.
