Orchestra Iowa website rates well in the U.S./Canadian Symphony Orchestra annual rankings

Cedar Rapids, IA – The U.S./Canadian Symphony Orchestra Website Rankings were released Tuesday. Out of 82 ranked orchestra websites, Orchestra Iowa’s is 13th. As a new ROPA (regional orchestra players association) ensemble, this was Orchestra Iowa’s first year of eligibility. Orchestra Iowa was also the highest ranked ROPA orchestra of those reviewed. The 12 orchestras rated above Orchestra Iowa are all ICSOM (international conference of symphony and opera musicians) ensembles with budgets greater than $10M.

Orchestra Iowa launched its newly designed website in August. Cedar Rapids based web provider Informatics worked with Orchestra Iowa on the redesign. To view the site visit www.orchestraiowa.org.

In September, Drew McManus, arts consultant and orchestra business expert, examined 82 professional American and Canadian orchestra websites and ranked them by how well they presented their concert schedule, sold tickets, facilitated making donations, provided organizational information, utilized dynamic content, and on overall functionality.

This one-of-a-kind comprehensive examination by industry insider, Drew McManus, shines an intense light on orchestra websites by peeling away the “pretty face” of a home page to examine the five critical components that will make or break an orchestra’s online effort to generate revenue, bring in a new audience, and generate awareness.

In a weeklong series of articles, McManus examines how the scores have changed since the reviews were launched in 2004. He also presents awards for how well individual orchestra websites satisfied the requirements for each review category as well as those which demonstrated particular originality and creativity for specific website components. The overall rankings along with detailed orchestra website scores are available at Adaptistration, one of several blogs featured at InsideTheArts.com; a cultural blogging collective.

Founded in April 1921, Orchestra Iowa is one of the oldest symphony orchestras in continuous operation west of the Mississippi River. Its 82 professional musicians perform more than 120 public performances throughout Eastern Iowa each year, many of which can be heard on Iowa Public Radio and seen on Iowa Public Television.

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