TSO is back on the world map
Orchestra posts a 17% rise in ticket sales for the 2016-17 season
The Toronto Symphony Orchestra on Thursday capped a hectic year in which it found a new CEO and said goodbye to music director Peter Oundjian by announcing a budget surplus of $2.3 million.
The deficit that the TSO has carried for most of this new century is roughly a quarter of what it was two years ago. Last month, the orchestra announced the hiring of a new music director, Gustavo Gimeno, who will arrive in 2020.
Although the TSO has been in the black for many years, the surplus for 2017-18 is significant. After many years of small, slow declines in ticket revenue, the organization posted a 17 per cent rise in ticket sales over the 2016-17 season.
Subscription revenue has been steady, but revenue from single-ticket sales last season was up 26 per cent. This is a remarkable accomplishment, largely due to interim CEO Gary Hanson, a veteran orchestra manager.
Hanson based increasing ticket revenue on a demand-pricing model similar to the one used by airlines. An increasing number of larger arts presenters in North America are finding flexible pricing to be a sure way to raise revenue. (Hanson handed over the administrative leadership to new CEO Matthew Loden in July at the start of a new fiscal year.)
The TSO has made financial strides in other ways, too. This includes reducing an accumulated deficit of nearly $12 million at the start of 2015 to $4.5 million today.
Largely with the help of private donors, the organization has a plan to eliminate the debt entirely in three years.
“The Toronto Symphony Orchestra’s 2017-18 season was a success by all measures,” said Catherine Beck at Thursday’s annual meeting, as she outlined the financial as well as artistic successes.