My community choir concerts, with intermission, typically run just under two hours, and some people tell me they are too long.  There have been shorter exceptions, but...  I guess there is just so much music I want to include, and a chamber division has their own portion of the concert with about four songs. It is a lot of music but only a few people complain.

Are they right?

Kristen,

I have always strived for about 60-70 minutes of music. Intermissions, pauses and me talking way too much does not count in the length.

S

Kristen:

 

The answer, unfortunately, has to be "it depends"!  It depends on your singers and their physical and vocal endurance.  It depends on your venue and how comfortable your audience is.  And it depends on your programming and on how much you value variety.

 

The traditional choral program (still used by many directors and by such professional ensembles as Chanticleer) is largely chronological, which often puts contemporary folk, jazz, and lighter works toward the end of the 2nd half.  Programming large-scale choral-orchestral works is a very different deal.  Both are valuable, and both have their places.

 

With my university show ensemble, our big spring concert was always longer than ideal, because by the end of the season we had so much good material that I wanted to include.  But it was a variety show, start to finish, and many audience members commented that the time seemed to fly because the material was constantly changing.  Some of those concerts were 2 1/2 hours, MUCH too long for a "normal" concert.

 

Rules of thumb:  1 hour is too short.  2 hours is probably too long.  I agree that about 90 minutes can be seen as the ideal, given all the other variables.  But variety is the key.  More of the same is NOT better than less of the same!  And the first half is almost always better when it is longer and perhaps heavier than the second half.  Another rule of thumb might be 50 minutes, 15 minute intermission, 20 minutes.  (Adjust to taste.)

 

I'm very aware of the "always leave them wanting more" approach (more often quoted in show business than in classical programming).  But "always leave them satisfied" often makes much more sense. 

 

Let's remember what we're competing with.  Time was when 3-hour church services and 5-hour operas were normal.  Those days are gone.  We're competing with TV shows in which every problem is solved in 60 miutes (actually more like 45 minutes plus commercials).  A good movie is between 2 and 2 1/2 hours, and leaves its audience feeling satisfied, not "wanting more."  "Wanting more" is for the Saturday morning serials at the movies that some of us still remember, the precursors of today's dramatic TV series.

 

For whatever it might be worth,

 

John

 

 

A very good question, and the answer depends on a number of things. There is no clear-cut answer in my opinion, but one thing I don't think has any bearing on the length is how much you charge. People don't pay by the minute..they pay for the experience. The most important consideration to me is the age of your choir! Older singers have difficulty standing for long periods of time, especially on risers. I assume we are talking about an amatuer choir...people who look at this as an avocation, not a vocation. Another consideration is what is your audience used to? When I first took over my present community chorus they had been giving one hour concerts with no intermission. I have been gradually able to increase the length of the concert, tackle more "quality" literature, and insert an intermission to give the audience a chance to "refresh and stretch". Another consideration is the music you are programming. Is it lighter in nature, all Broadway, that sort of thing...or are you tackling some heavy duty literature? If the literature is familiar to the audience I find they are willing to sit and listen for a longer time! We put an intermission in two of the three concerts we give each year and they each run for approx. 75-90 minutes. We do not use an intermission in our Christmas Concerts, we invite other choirs to sing with us, and we try to tie the selections together in such a way that they flow from one to the next, allowing us to program 18-20 selections in about 70-75  minutes. Our Christmas Concerts are also our most popular. This years concerts saw about 1000 people total attend the two performances and I think they could have sat through another half an hour if we had the music! So you see there is no clear-cut answer.

You must do what your choir and audience is most comfortable with...maybe some trial and error will be needed to find the answer.

Good luck!

 

Ron Sayer

ACDA National Chair for Community Choruses

 

Artistic Director

Marshall Community Chorus

 Thank you everyone for your feedback.  IIt will be very helpful when I meet with my board.  

 Always leave your audience wanting more. Ninety minutes  plus and intermission is enough. 

 Our concerts tend to be about 1 1/2 hours, including intermission and talking. What drives this is that I always aim for 60 minutes of actual music, that being the right amount for my chorus and soloists to learn. By using this standard plus my standard of 12-13 choral works (the rest ensembles & solos), it forces me to craft the most interesting program I can out of these materials.

 

Bill Paisner

Director, Southwest Women's Chorus

Absolutely, shorter rather than longer, you don't want everybody to start getting tired and looking at their watches. We've had concerts down to an hour and everybody liked the experience and didn't complain about paying full admission.

The instruction I received in college that I has always kept in mind and has proved helpful in programming comes from an audience members point of view:  "What my butt can't stand, my brain can't absorb."  I took it to mean take into account the comfort of the listeners and make sure they are comfortable throughout the entire performance.  That varies depending on the venue - bleacher seating vs auditorium seats. 

I like that quote Ken!  My Pastor used to say that as well!

 

I can't imagine an audience locally sitting still for 2 hours.  The last few concerts I have attended or conducted have had fairly poor audience etiquette.  OUtside of our local University's Christmas concert (runs about 2 hours), most seem to average 1 hour.