The Elgin Symphony Orchestra is what I call a satellite orchestra. This means that we are neither in the center of a major metropolitan area, nor in a smaller metropolitan area. If we were either the Chicago or Peoria Symphonies, we would be able to attract the attention of both the leaders of those cities and be the clear focus for their surrounding communities.

In a satellite situation, people who either live or work half way between Elgin and Chicago have a much greater focus on Chicago than Elgin.

I assume the Chicago Symphony Orchestra has active volunteer leadership who live in Arlington Heights. We do not. While Elgin is more convenient to Arlington Heights than traveling to Chicago, more people from Arlington Heights work in Chicago than Elgin and are more used to going to Chicago for entertainment.

Being a satellite orchestra comes with other challenges. Most of the major media outlets are focused on Chicago. All of the major network television stations broadcast out of the big city. The region’s two major newspapers are focused on downtown. Until recently, all of the radio stations we would like to advertise on emanated in Chicago. Attracting young staff to a smaller city - just far enough from a cultural Mecca to keep people from wanting to make the commute - is also difficult.

Of course, with every challenge comes opportunity. We do not have the focus of being in the center of a metropolitan area, but we are actually easier for a suburbanite to reach than going into the City.

The suburbs are growing at extraordinary speeds. There are media sources like the Daily Herald Newspaper who have become highly effective at speaking to the suburban audiences and are a perfect overlap for our patrons. Attracting staff from across the country remains a challenge, but we need to figure out how to harness what we have to become ever more effective here.

This is a big country, with a wide variety of orchestras. It is often easy for us at the ESO to look at the difficulties in front of us and how much easier others have it. What is more challenging, though much more effective, is to look at how to harness those challenges into assets.