ISO’s Simon Crookall says

It was first announced on Oct. 21 of last year: the first appointment of an Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra president and CEO from overseas — some two years following the appointment of Mario Venzago as the new ISO music director. Simon Crookall, 44, officially took over the post from retiring Richard Hoffert this Jan. 1. Crookall held, for nine years, an equivalent position with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra in Glasgow. Born in England and educated at King’s College, Cambridge (he holds a master of arts degree in economics), Crookall has spent most of his working life in Scotland.

New ISO president wants broader-based audience. "With young people particularly, a very good way to draw them in is a social activity that involves their peers, their friends and colleagues. I think we need to be a bit bolder than that in thinking about the performances themselves, and how — without changing the essence of what we are — to deliver than a very high quality product."

Now that he’s had a few months here to size everything up, Crookall has definitive views on how to enhance both the orchestra’s visibility and attract a wider demographic, as he shared with me in a conversation we recently had in his Symphony Centre office.

NUVO: Now that you’re on this side of the Atlantic, what, to you, is the most startling difference between running a symphonic organization there and here?

Crookall: I think the biggest difference is, of course, in the way the funding is made up. What’s been very interesting for me is that the symphony here is a very similar animal to the one I’m used to ... in the U.K.: same number of players, same quantity of activity and all of that. It’s just that in the U.K. I had 50 percent of my budget funded directly from central and local government. Here, the government percentage is negligible. So here, the fact that we have to raise every penny spent is the biggest difference, I think.

NUVO: Both of you being native Britons, I assume you’ve gotten acquainted with our previous music director, Raymond Leppard?

Crookall: Yes, I’ve spent some time with Raymond. He’s a wonderful, very charming, extremely talented man. I’d met him very briefly before; I hadn’t known him before I came — except of course through his recordings. This was certainly a big factor in my thinking that Indianapolis was a place of choice. It’s because of Raymond that I knew about the orchestra in the first place, and have known about it for some time. If somebody like Raymond likes Indianapolis enough to want to stay here and settle down, then that’s a plus point as far as I’m concerned.

NUVO: Forte is a group, as I understand it, of mostly gen-Xers [aged 19 to 34] working to promote the symphony for younger audiences. Could you describe them and their activities?

Crookall: This is a small group of volunteer leadership of people who are helping us with advice and information about what appeals to people in that age group. With young people particularly, a very good way to draw them in is a social activity that involves their peers, their friends and colleagues. I think we need to be a bit bolder than that in thinking about the performances themselves, and how — without changing the essence of what we are — to deliver them a very high quality product.

NUVO: What do you see happening in terms of programming changes to draw audiences from the younger demographic?

Crookall: I don’t think it’s as much a change in the repertoire as much as the way we perform it. There might be a more visual presentation; we need to experiment with some of these things, to see what works and what doesn’t. What I’m most interested in is making our “core” repertoire more attractive to young people. It’s difficult because young people expect everything to be interactive, have movement and visuals, lighting and everything else. But what we strive to do is to try and make that product of which we’re so proud into something that people can approach more easily and not put off people who’re not comfortable. I think the only way to do that is to do some experiments. Let’s take a different night of the week, a different time of day, a shorter concert format maybe, and maybe a slightly more modern repertoire. At the end of that, we may find that we’ve gained a new, committed audience — who, in time, will progress to the regular standard fare.

NUVO: Are you now, or do you plan to be a full-time resident here in Indiana — understanding that “breaking away” from one’s homeland in mid-life is not always easy?

Crookall: I’ve just bought a house — up on 79th Street — just on the edge of Eagle Creek. I had always intended to put down roots here when I accepted this job. If you’re working for an organization like this, you can’t do it on a part-time basis. I had always thought about America as one of the places to work that would be interesting. But you are in these jobs for the relative long term because anything I do to influence or change or develop, it would not take effect in just another two years. I’m already programmed well into the future.