{"id":1151,"date":"2016-09-20T16:42:28","date_gmt":"2016-09-20T23:42:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/?p=1151"},"modified":"2016-09-21T17:35:54","modified_gmt":"2016-09-22T00:35:54","slug":"some-of-our-orchestras-seem-to-be-thriving-is-this-a-new-trend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/2016\/09\/some-of-our-orchestras-seem-to-be-thriving-is-this-a-new-trend.html","title":{"rendered":"Some Of Our Orchestras Seem To Be Thriving &#8211; Is This A New Trend?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/Stlouisso.jpg?ssl=1\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-1153\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/Stlouisso.jpg?resize=800%2C213&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"stlouisso\" width=\"800\" height=\"213\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/Stlouisso.jpg?w=800&amp;ssl=1 800w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/Stlouisso.jpg?resize=300%2C80&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/Stlouisso.jpg?resize=768%2C204&amp;ssl=1 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>There&#8217;s been a change in the news coming out of symphony orchestras over the past summer. Usually there&#8217;s a background drumbeat of struggle as orchestras fight to stay alive. But for months now, the beat has shifted, and we&#8217;re hearing about orchestras that are not only surviving but thriving.<\/p>\n<p>Yes, Fort Worth Symphony musicians are on strike, the Pittsburgh Symphony is in the middle of contentious contract negotiations, and the Philadelphia Orchestra is still struggling with crushing financial challenges. \u00a0For every good news story below, there are other orchestras struggling to just stay alive, but here are some recently-reported successes:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.bizjournals.com\/denver\/news\/2016\/09\/12\/colorado-symphony-posts-first-budget-surplus-in-26.html\">Colorado Symphony:<\/a> &#8220;For the first time since it was organized in 1989, the Colorado Symphony is beginning a new concert season with a budget surplus, $1.7 million in cash in the bank and substantial financial commitments toward a goal of creating a $50 million permanent endowment.&#8221;<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.bizjournals.com\/stlouis\/news\/2016\/07\/27\/saint-louis-symphony-sees-increased-ticket-revenue.html\">St. Louis Symphony:<\/a>\u00a0\u201cTotal ticket sales for all performances reached $6.87 million, up 3.8 percent compared with last season. Even though there are three fewer concerts this year, attendance rose more than 1 percent to 190,817, officials said.\u201d<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.bizjournals.com\/kansascity\/news\/2016\/08\/10\/kansas-city-symphony-season-results.html\">Kansas City Symphony:<\/a>\u00a0Kansas City Symphony Sets Attendance Records, Virtually \u201cSelling Out\u201d Its Season &#8220;The symphony reported a record of nearly $5 million in total ticket revenue for its 2015-16 season, with $2.9 million of that in subscriptions. Perhaps more impressive, the symphony series performances sold 95 percent of available tickets, on average.\u201d<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.indystar.com\/story\/news\/2016\/09\/16\/indianapolis-symphony-orchestra\/90429260\/\">Indianapolis Symphony:<\/a>\u00a0&#8220;After the bitter 2012 contract battle that led to a monthlong lockout for musicians, ISO cites a string of successes, including\u00a0three straight years of budget surpluses and\u00a0major growth in ticket sales and fundraising.&#8221;<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.artsatl.com\/news-aso-hits-firmer-financial-ground-records-budget-surplus-row\/\">Atlanta Symphony:\u00a0<\/a>\u201cThe ASO announced yesterday that it closed the 2015-16 fiscal year with a budget surplus for the second straight year. ASO spokeswoman Tammy Hawk said the final budget numbers won\u2019t be released until a final audit is complete. In addition, the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Musicians\u2019 Endowment Fund has raised over $20 million and is expected to reach its $25 million goal this year.\u201d<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.omaha.com\/go\/arts\/omaha-symphony-announces-records-in-ticket-sales-attendance\/article_f74e0a2c-943f-59c8-b73d-6c414a6a1cbf.html\">Omaha Symphony:<\/a>\u00a0\u201cSymphony officials say subscription ticket sales for next season are 8 percent higher than they were on this date last year. Subscription revenue is up 9 percent so far. The fastest growth is in the Rocks and Movie Music series.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>In addition, the Buffalo Philharmonic has raised $23 million in\u00a0endowment, the Detroit and Grand Rapids Symphonies have each raised $40 million for endowments and Kansas City is close to meeting a\u00a0$55 million endowment campaign. In recent days Detroit has announced it&#8217;s starting a new amateur orchestra and rethinking a second performance space, and Buffalo has signed a new six-year contract with its musicians. Both Detroit and Indianapolis, which were in dire health just a few years ago, have impressively renewed and reinvented themselves. The Minnesota Orchestra, which lost a season to a bitter<del> strike<\/del>\u00a0[lockout] a couple years ago, likewise seems to be recovering nicely. The Seattle Symphony has also been reinvigorated after a prolonged down period and seems to be announcing substantial new initiatives almost weekly.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s easy to cherry-pick successes and failures. It&#8217;s also easy to dwell on the bad stories and worry that they are cautionary tales. There doesn&#8217;t yet appear to be an obvious connection between these orchestras that appear to be doing well (aside from the fact all are mid-size orchestras or from mid-size cities). These stories might also not mean anything about the bigger state of the orchestra world. But I have been struck over the last several weeks by the number of good news orchestra stories we&#8217;ve been finding on ArtsJournal. In my experience, this is a change from the usual. Maybe not yet a trend, but who knows.<\/p>\n<p>[Have I missed obvious other examples? Please add in the comments section below]<\/p>\n<h6 style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.stlsymphony.org\/en\/about-us\/staff\/\">Image: St. Louis Symphony<\/a><\/h6>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There&#8217;s been a change in the news coming out of symphony orchestras over the past summer. Usually there&#8217;s a background drumbeat of struggle as orchestras fight to stay alive. But for months now, the beat has shifted, and we&#8217;re hearing about orchestras that are not only surviving but thriving. Yes, Fort Worth Symphony musicians are [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1153,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[35],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1151","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-business","8":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/Stlouisso.jpg?fit=800%2C213&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4ePZm-iz","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1201,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/2016\/10\/aj-week-in-review-two-big-orchestras-strike-two-others-report-record-success.html","url_meta":{"origin":1151,"position":0},"title":"AJ Week In Review: Two Big Orchestras Strike, Two Others Report Record Success","author":"Douglas McLennan","date":"October 2, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"This Week: Three orchestras now on strike as audience waits... Two other orchestras report record success... A museum raises $100 million in just three months... Bots are getting awfully good at making art... More links between being bored and being creative. A Bad Week For Three Orchestras: The audience was\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Weekly AJ Top Stories&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Weekly AJ Top Stories","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/category\/weekly-aj-top-stories"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/PhiladelphiaOrchestrastrikecp.jpg?fit=1200%2C720&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/PhiladelphiaOrchestrastrikecp.jpg?fit=1200%2C720&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/PhiladelphiaOrchestrastrikecp.jpg?fit=1200%2C720&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/PhiladelphiaOrchestrastrikecp.jpg?fit=1200%2C720&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/PhiladelphiaOrchestrastrikecp.jpg?fit=1200%2C720&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1296,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/2017\/01\/are-orchestras-a-ticket-or-an-art-maybe-were-thinking-about-the-made-up-model-wrong.html","url_meta":{"origin":1151,"position":1},"title":"Are Orchestras A Ticket Or An Art? Maybe We&#8217;re Thinking About The (Made Up) Model Wrong","author":"Douglas McLennan","date":"January 26, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"As recently as 1990, American symphony orchestras accounted for an average of 60 percent of their budgets in earned income. This meant, at the time, that if you weren't selling enough tickets (and other services) to make 60 percent, then you weren't considered healthy. A report in 1991 - The\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;culture business models&quot;","block_context":{"text":"culture business models","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/category\/culture-business-models"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/orchnumbers.png?fit=959%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/orchnumbers.png?fit=959%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/orchnumbers.png?fit=959%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/orchnumbers.png?fit=959%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":113,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/2009\/06\/_how_do_you_spread.html","url_meta":{"origin":1151,"position":2},"title":"Terms Of Endearment &#8211; How Does An Orchestra Spell Success?","author":"Douglas McLennan","date":"June 10, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"How do good ideas take hold? It's not enough to talk about them; the context in which you talk about them has to be right. How do producers pitch ideas for movies? They relate them to other movies that have already been successful. So Terminator meets Cheaper by the Dozen\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 1 comment","block_context":{"text":"With 1 comment","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/2009\/06\/_how_do_you_spread.html#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"ideaspread.jpg","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/ideaspread.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1240,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/2016\/11\/this-weeks-aj-highlights-hamilton-teaches-the-art-of-protest-at-last-some-real-data-on-orchestras.html","url_meta":{"origin":1151,"position":3},"title":"This Week&#8217;s AJ Highlights: &#8220;Hamilton&#8221; Teaches The Art Of Protest, At Last Some Real Data On Orchestras","author":"Douglas McLennan","date":"November 20, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"This Week: That Mike Pence goes to \"Hamilton\" story? A textbook protest... Finally - some real data on the health of orchestras... Arts criticism is either being reborn or it's in dire shape... Pop culture is getting to be only for the rich... The myth of the outsider is a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Weekly AJ Top Stories&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Weekly AJ Top Stories","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/category\/weekly-aj-top-stories"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/%E2%80%98Hamilton%E2%80%99-Had-Some-Unscripted-Lines-for-Pence.-Trump-Wasn%E2%80%99t-Happy.-The-New-York-Times.jpg?fit=1200%2C607&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/%E2%80%98Hamilton%E2%80%99-Had-Some-Unscripted-Lines-for-Pence.-Trump-Wasn%E2%80%99t-Happy.-The-New-York-Times.jpg?fit=1200%2C607&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/%E2%80%98Hamilton%E2%80%99-Had-Some-Unscripted-Lines-for-Pence.-Trump-Wasn%E2%80%99t-Happy.-The-New-York-Times.jpg?fit=1200%2C607&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/%E2%80%98Hamilton%E2%80%99-Had-Some-Unscripted-Lines-for-Pence.-Trump-Wasn%E2%80%99t-Happy.-The-New-York-Times.jpg?fit=1200%2C607&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/%E2%80%98Hamilton%E2%80%99-Had-Some-Unscripted-Lines-for-Pence.-Trump-Wasn%E2%80%99t-Happy.-The-New-York-Times.jpg?fit=1200%2C607&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":68,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/2009\/03\/dog_days_a_new_artsjournal_blo.html","url_meta":{"origin":1151,"position":4},"title":"Dog Days, A new ArtsJournal Blog","author":"Douglas McLennan","date":"March 31, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Today we're happy to launch Dalouge Smith's new blog on arts advocacy. It's called Dog Days. Dalouge runs the San Diego Youth Symphony, and we met last summer in Chicago while I was writing a story on new thinking in how to run orchestras. Why a blog on arts advocacy?\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2468,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/2021\/06\/how-has-technology-changed-orchestras-my-talk-for-the-league-of-american-orchestras-conference.html","url_meta":{"origin":1151,"position":5},"title":"How Has Technology Changed Orchestras? &#8212; My Talk for the League of American Orchestras Conference","author":"Douglas McLennan","date":"June 9, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"I was asked to deliver a \"provocation\" for this week's League of American Orchestras annual conference with the prompt \"How has Technology Changed Orchestras Forever?\" Here's a video of the talk and the transcript:.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;arts &amp; tech&quot;","block_context":{"text":"arts &amp; tech","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/category\/arts-tech"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/violin-2772433_1280.jpg?fit=1200%2C533&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/violin-2772433_1280.jpg?fit=1200%2C533&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/violin-2772433_1280.jpg?fit=1200%2C533&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/violin-2772433_1280.jpg?fit=1200%2C533&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/violin-2772433_1280.jpg?fit=1200%2C533&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1151","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1151"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1151\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1159,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1151\/revisions\/1159"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1153"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1151"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1151"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1151"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}