Baltimore Symphony Wins American Marketing Association Marketing Excellence Award

Earlier this week, the American Marketing Association (AMA) - Baltimore presented the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra (BSO) with the Marketing Excellence Award for Best Advertising Campaign for its ongoing Musicians Campaign. The 2013 campaign, comprising of 20 unique and disarming photos featuring members of the BSO as real and relatable individuals, was the brainchild of BSO Vice President of Marketing and Communications Eileen Andrews, BSO Art Director Elisa Watson and photographer James Bartolomeo, who served as the project's creative director. By celebrating the BSO's world-class musicians in less formal and more personal ways, the initiative allows the public to feel a connection to these artists that they otherwise would not. This award-wining campaign complements the BSO and Music Director Marin Alsop's commitments to being a leader and innovator in the field for accessibility and audience engagement.

"The BSO Musicians Campaign is an outgrowth of a video I created for the BSO's gala in 2011, which featured a dozen or so musicians individually interviewed against a white backdrop," explained Bartolomeo. "The goal of the video and the ongoing still campaign has been to humanize the orchestra and build on the BSO's efforts to make classical music, and really the Orchestra here in Baltimore, approachable for a much wider, younger audience."

The 2014 iteration of the campaign was featured in an article by Tim Smith of the Baltimore Sun titled, "Baltimore Symphony marketing campaign shows musicians without any airs, but some tattoos," (December 9, 2013) which comments on the outdoor banners now hanging on the Cathedral Street side of the Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall. In addition to these building banners, the campaign included print advertisements, kiosk posters, street banners, digital components and a large billboard-style banner around the top exterior of the Meyerhoff.

ABOUT THE BALTIMORE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA: The Grammy Award-winning Baltimore Symphony Orchestra (BSO) is internationally recognized as having achieved a preeminent place among the world's most important orchestras. Acclaimed for its enduring pursuit of artistic excellence, the BSO has attracted a devoted national and international following while maintaining deep bonds throughout Maryland with innovative education and community outreach initiatives.

The BSO made musical history in September 2007, when Maestra Marin Alsop led her inaugural concerts as the Orchestra's 12th music director, making her the first woman to head a major American orchestra. With her highly praised artistic vision, her dynamic musicianship and her commitment to accessibility in classical music, Maestra Alsop's leadership has ushered in a new era for the BSO and its audiences.

Under Music Director Marin Alsop's leadership, the BSO has rapidly added several critically acclaimed albums to its already impressive discography. The BSO recently released Dvo?ák's Symphonies Nos. 6, 7 and 8, the final two discs in its three-disc Dvo?ák cycle. In August 2009, the BSO and Marin Alsop released Bernstein's Mass featuring baritone Jubilant Sykes, the Morgan State University Choir and the Peabody Children's Chorus. The album rose to number six on the Classical Billboard Charts and received a 2009 Grammy nomination for Best Classical Album. The Orchestra made its foray into online distribution in April 2007 with the release of a live-concert recording of Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring on iTunes, which quickly became the site's number one classical music download.

In addition to the Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall, where the orchestra has performed for 28 years, the BSO is a founding partner and the resident orchestra at the new state-of-the-art Music Center at Strathmore, just outside Washington, D.C. With the opening of Strathmore in February 2005, the BSO became the nation's only major orchestra with year-round venues in two metropolitan areas.

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