In Friday’s (11/30) Plain Dealer, Zachary Lewis writes, “The Cleveland Orchestra is making huge strides in certain key areas and taking smaller, less visible steps in others. That, in short, is the news from the annual report released at a board meeting Nov. 29. Even as the group in fiscal 2012 reduced debt, attracted new listeners and raised near-record amounts, its endowment barely grew and the root causes of past deficits lingered. … One of the brighter spots in the report: the near-elimination of the annual deficit. Where last year the orchestra fell $2.7 million short on a $47.5 million budget, this year it posted a deficit of $183,000 on a budget of $48.4 million. Also positive was news of attendance. While attendance at Severance Hall remained flat, per-concert attendance at Blossom Music Center increased substantially, from 4,547 to 6,050. And those were just concerts in Northeast Ohio. In addition to Cleveland-area venues, the orchestra during fiscal 2012 also spent considerable time performing in South Florida, New York’s Carnegie Hall and sites all over Europe and the American West Coast. Those events brought in $8.3 million, the orchestra said, up from $7.4 million last year. Gift-giving also remained near last year’s record high. Total gift commitments in fiscal 2012 were $42.9 million, the orchestra said. That’s $1.3 million less than last year but $18.4 million more than in 2010.”
Posted November 30, 2012
