The Oregon Symphony announced today that they had achieved double-digit gains in both average concert attendance and ticket sales revenue. For the 2007-2008 season, the OSO sold $5.64 million in tickets, up over 15 percent from the previous season. As for audience attendance, the symphony sold 7,878 more tickets that last season, which, combined with six fewer concerts that last season, made for just over a 14 percent increase in average paid attendance.
“Our financial viability depends on the support of our community, which is most easily demonstrated at the box office,” said Oregon Symphony Association President Elaine Calder. “Our funders, individual donors and sponsors want to see that our programs are attracting a broad cross-section of the ticket-buying public. It is tremendously important to us that we continue to rebuild our audiences. With 2,780 seats, the Schnitz (Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall) is a big performance space, but we have no trouble filling it when we offer appealing programs and artists – both classical and popular. And next year promises to continue the turn-around we’ve experienced this season.”
These numbers are encouraging, and if we’re able to get this type of performance for the next several seasons, the orchestra could find itself out of the woods in good order.
Of interest were the top-selling concerts of the season:
- Van Cliburn – 98.5% sold
- Norman Leyden’s 90th birthday – 96.2%
- Carmina Burana – 94.3% average
And, finally, ticket sales for the coming 2008-2009 season are strong, with $3.4 million sold so far, a marked increase over last year’s numbers by this date.
OSO website: www.orsymphony.org
Read the complete press release.
One reply on “OSO makes strides in ticket sales/attendance”
That is good news, indeed. I wonder how many Beethoven 9th’s, Carmina Burana’s, Van Cliburn’s, Eartha Kitts, Mr. Leyden, and other top tens you can keep doing to get people to the concert hall. Mrs. Calder is right about creating appealing programs and having good artists. Rebuilding audiences (from what, I don’t know) must be a hard thing to do. Good luck.