Hi Lucinda, thanks for such a thoughtful response! You are absolutely correct that only a small percentage of the population attends orchestral concerts, and it behooves us to grow attendance in general. What I question is the idea that the challenges in growing audiences are different between suburban orchestras and bigger urban institutions as you mentioned. From my experience at organizations of all sizes (Seattle Symphony and Seattle Opera on the larger end and here at the California Symphony, based in a suburb of San Francisco), the challenge is actually almost identical! It’s tough everywhere, and I think you are right on the money with your ideas of throwing away pops concerts (I think we should blend that rep in with other rep instead of siloing it), performing interesting works, and most importantly—based on research we’ve done here—make the programming more accessible through educational information provided before the purchase. Thanks for your work in Boston, and an extra thank you again for your thoughtfulness on these big issues!