Cantus Board Member Laurie Meyers is the Director of Choirs at Minneapolis South High School. She works with young singers daily to help them find their voice.
“Every day in my choir room, I watch teenagers’ faces change the moment they nail a hard passage, or hear music that speaks to something they didn’t have words for yet. As a choir director, I’ve built my career around the belief that access to music isn’t a luxury: it’s essential to how people understand themselves and one another.
That same belief is why I joined the Cantus board. I’ve seen it in action every time they walked onstage or into a classroom to work with students including their residency at St. Louis Park High School this year.
That’s part of why I care so much about Cantus’ pay-what-you-can ticket model. It’s a promise that a student, a teacher, a family on a tight budget, a senior on a fixed income, or anyone curious about music won’t be shut out of the room.
The numbers tell the story. Last season through pay-what-you-can pricing Cantus sold 2,132 tickets below full price. That’s nearly 10% of the in-person audience and 55% of the online audience, numbers that have held steady since the model began in 2022. Cantus invested in accessible tickets at a cost of $61,966.75 last season, so more people could be in the room, or logged in from wherever they are. Cantus is committed to making this available and have expanded efforts this season with more pay-what-you-can ticket availability to more in-person concerts.”
This season, Cantus revamped our pay-what-you-can model in an attempt to make concerts more accessible. You can learn more about those changes here.
In addition to our accessible pricing options, this past season we began partnering with Project Success to offer free tickets to Project Success students and their families. As part of this program, students were able to attend performances of Christmas with Cantus: Three Tales of Christmas and Covers: Dolly & Friends at no cost. We are looking forward to working with Project Success again this coming season!
Both of these programs are only possible due to the generosity of our incredible donors. We thank them for their support as we continue our efforts to make music accessible to all.
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