Those changes have pushed the Warren County Association – which has provided concerts via a subscription model since the late 1940s – to discontinue its operations.

The Association is winding down and has gifted its remaining funds to three organizations with the similar mission of providing music in Warren County – the Warren Philharmonic, Warren County Summer Music School and Struthers Library Theatre. Their archive will be donated to the Warren County Historical Society.

A letter to benefactors announcing the decision notes that the Association has presented more than 300 concerts.

“There is regret and sadness that the association can no longer operate as it has in the past,” the letter states. “Subscription organizations like ours have folded quietly over the last decade. Our partner organization, the Jamestown Concert Association, went out of existence two years ago.

Photo from the Warren Times-Mirror An advertisement for the Warren Concert Association from Nov. 10, 1961. The organization operated with a subscription model throughout its history.

“WCA carried on beyond COVID, but many things have changed in the world and we have not managed to attract large enough audiences to practically and affordably sustain a concert season.”

Manager Pat Evans said that the WCA was originally the Jaycee’s Concert Series.

It’s been a near continuous stream of music since then, with no concerts only in 2020 and 2021 as well as 1956-1958.

Evans said the focus was classical music – the Vienna Boys Choir, Buffalo Philharmonic, Arthur Fiedler and the Scottish National Symphony, among a long list – until 1980 when additional genres started to be added into the mix.

Since 1980, the styles have varied – dance, piano, ragtime brass, jazz, Irish music.

As with many things, the COVID-19 pandemic may rightly be blamed for tipping things over the edge.

“That really is what completely changed things,” Evans said. “I remember sitting in the Library Theatre in February 2020” talking about “how long we should postpone things. Obviously it turned out to be almost two years.”

The organization once had 700 members.

“Last year we had 120 subscribers,” Evans said, “and the people who gave the most and were dedicated, they’ve left this world.”

She said how people choose events has always changed, citing that people are more likely to listen to music at home or go to concerts at the last minute.

“It’s not just us,” she said. “The couple of artists we did have (post-COVID) said any place they were used to going, people weren’t coming anymore.”

While the last few years were a struggle, she highlighted that one of the last groups the WCA hosted in Warren was Nicole Zuraitis, who won the 2024 Grammy for best jazz vocal album.

“That’s a pretty big deal,” she said.

There’s still a future for live music in Warren.

Evans highlighted the Struthers Library Theatre’s Celebrity Series.

“They’re doing things not on the spot but doing things with less lead time,” she said. “That’s a benefit” because it can result in a lower fee.

She said it felt good to know the WCA’s funds are “going to the right places” that are “similar enough to what we do.

“We’ll still have live music opportunities,” she said. “I hope people will take advantage of them.”