The Atlantic Classical Orchestra is for the first time selling season tickets to a Palm Beach Gardens audience. And the first time it is operating under a salaried president and CEO.
Alan Hopper has been named to the top management position with the Vero-, Stuart- and now Palm Beach Gardens-based chamber orchestra. Hopper is the former president and executive director of the Baton Rouge Symphony Orchestra, and before that, executive director of the Jacksonville Orchestra.
Hopper, who lived in Stuart as a boy, has kept a home in Jacksonville. He is currently house-hunting in the Vero-Stuart area after starting his new post last month.
“He has the deepest, most comprehensive background that we have ever seen for this position,” says John Beckert, an ACO board member who chaired the search committee.
After years of having volunteer presidents and paid executive directors, the board of directors of the chamber orchestra has decided to give its top management position a more corporate title.
“It enhances the stature and correctly describes the role of the individual in that position,” says Beckert. “‘President and CEO’ is a strong title. It’s commensurate with the position, it’s appropriate for industry norms and it attracts the strongest candidates.”
Since 2010, Indian River Shores resident Michael LaPorta has served the orchestra as president on a volunteer basis. Until last fall, the group was run by Anne Berquist, who had the title of executive director during her one-year tenure, before taking the same position with Opera Grand Rapids last December.
Before leaving, Berquist announced a trial expansion of ACO into the northern Palm Beach County area with free Wednesday afternoon ACO dress rehearsals, to be held at the Eissey Campus Theatre of Palm Beach State College. The reception for those rehearsals was tremendous, says Beckert. “They were blow-outs. We filled the hall.”
He says the attendance built a data base for ACO and through marketing efforts, season ticket sales in Palm Beach Gardens are “going nicely.” The campus is across the street from the Gardens Mall on PGA Blvd.
“It provides an opportunity for additional performances, when you have already invested in the fixed cost of your rehearsals. Properly done, this is a very important development. And it opens up a whole new base of support in addition to Vero and Stuart.”
Beckert says under Hopper’s management, the Jacksonville Orchestra succeeded in attracting younger audiences. “Jacksonville is a big orchestra that has a long season. They did some innovative things with local music groups that were surprising. They’re not classical music people and yet they were able to blend classical and pop.”
But it is not a subject that particularly concerns Hopper. “The issue of aging audiences has been around since I was in college,” Hopper says. “There are challenges for audiences everywhere, and we’re always trying to do things to bring in the younger crowds and I’ve had a lot of success. But people reach a point in life when they have more time to do things and they’re looking for entertainment. I’ve met a lot of people on the board who are very enthusiastic and they’ve just recently started coming to concerts.”
Hopper grew up mostly in Tampa and graduated from the University of South Florida. He later taught there while playing bassoon and saxophone with Florida Orchestra, formerly Florida Gulf Coast Symphony.
“I really wanted to get back to Florida,” says Hopper, 66. “I saw this position available and I liked the business model. I liked the fact that they were doing several performances of each concert. It piqued my interest,” he said.
“He brings 34 years of management experience in orchestras of different sizes, mostly largely than ours,” says Beckert. “He’s dealt with a variety of audiences and in addition, he has his own experience as a musician.”
Hopper had been contacted by a search firm hired by ACO, when last April, on the spur of the moment, he decided to visit Stuart in April for ACO’s final concert. “I don’t think anybody knew I was coming,” he says. “I was very impressed. The quality of the playing was great and there was a wonderful guest artist. It’s really about the quality. If I had not been impressed, I would not have been interested.”
The nearly sold out concert was “the quietest audience I’ve ever sat in,” he says. “People were very respectful, very enthusiastic.”
He said Stuart in ways resembled the town he knew as a child, when his father managed a cattle ranch between Stuart and Indiantown, and his family lived in an 800-square-foot cinderblock house. “Stuart still has that charm,” he says of his visit.