« 10,000 Hours of Practice | Main | Clapping between movements, and others classical music blunders »
November 26, 2008
Detroit Symphony in Trouble? Uh oh!
Unsurprisingly, given the currently disastrous state of the Michigan economy, the Detroit Symphony is battling some fairly major financial issueswith year-end losses totally around half a million. That's a lot right? Apparently not... comparatively, given the orchestra's 31.5 million dolllar budget. Personally, I'm surprised it's not more; every time I go to a concert, unless it's Yo-Yo Ma, there are tons of empty seats, especially in the upper balcony, where it's almost empty. Thankfully for the DSO, they have some very reliable donors, but for how long can that go on?
A shameless plug to go see the DSO at beautiful Orchestra Hall
In these tough economic times, it is not a shock that ticket sales have declined as audience members have less money to spend on entertainment and leisure, but is there anything orchestras can do to combat this trend? Unfortunately, in order to meet budget demands they must keep prices high, but have incentives for someone to buy, otherwise they would have even more empty seats. I'm a fan of the new 3711 program-where I can get a seat in the Dress Circle for just $11. Sometimes when I consider how cheap I am when it comes to concerts-concerts that I undoubtedly want to go to-I wonder if maybe I'm part of the problem. Could I afford the cheapest regular seat? Probably. Do I want to spend the money? Not likely. Do I still want to hear the concert? Of course. It's a vicious circle-if audience members (not including wealthy donors/elderly, but the prospective younger segment) are musicians themselves, it's not likely that their meager incomes will support frequent concert attendance, regardless of how much they'd love to hear a live performance of Mahler 2 or Gil Shaham play the Brahms Violin Concerto. A recording is just not the same! I just hope that they can manage to stay afloat, because the DSO is much too valuable of an asset to Michigan arts & culture to lose.
Posted by srelder at November 26, 2008 12:15 PM