Houston -- Every year, the CoF cell here bestows what it calls the Fast Houston Pacesetter Award on a local business thinker. While I was in town, I ate breakfast with the 1999 winner of that award: John Axelrod, 33, artistic director and conductor of OrchestraX, a nonprofit organization that promotes classical music among gen-Xers. Axelrod talked with me about OrchestraX's nonprofit-for-profit business model.

Put your money where your music is.

'Nonprofit arts organizations know how to spend money, but very few of them know how to make money. So we treat OrchestraX as a for-profit business: We have a customer-service approach. We also incorporate charity and community into our concerts, so that people have more than just one reason to come.'

Music should be scene, not herd.

'The traditional way of presenting classical music is a lot like a traditional corporate structure: Audiences are expected to be passive. As an A&R guy, I worked with Tori Amos and Smashing Pumpkins, and I learned about what makes a good concert experience. With OrchestraX, we want each of our concerts to be a very integrated, informal happening.'

Coordinates: OrchestraX, www.orchestrax.org

From: January:February 2000 issue