More and more young audiences
In the 2015/2016 season, publicly funded German theaters and orchestras put on around 14,400 performances in the area of children's and youth theater. According to the German Orchestra Association (DOV), orchestras and theaters thus reached almost three million young visitors.
The DOV writes that efforts in the field of music education and theater pedagogy have contributed to the clear upward trend. All major theaters and many small theaters now have extra positions for educators who bring both theater and music closer to visitors. The high popularity among audiences shows that the path taken is the right one.
According to the DOV, the seasonal balances of the past few months also confirm the trend. For the season that has just ended, an unusually large number of theaters and orchestras have presented record balances. Municipalities across the country are also spending a lot of money on renovating their theaters or even constructing new buildings and concert halls. DOV Managing Director Gerald Mertens is convinced that the classical music turnaround is in full swing.
