“The city of Detroit may be in bankruptcy, but the Detroit Symphony Orchestra is back in the black,” writes Michael Cooper in Wednesday’s (12/11) New York Times. “The symphony planned to disclose on Thursday that it had balanced its budget for the first time since 2007. The orchestra ended the 2013 fiscal year with a small surplus after raising $18.9 million in contributions, a 43 percent increase over the year before. Ticket revenue rose to $6.26 million as the orchestra sold more subscriptions, it said. The newly released figures suggested that the orchestra is recovering from a corrosive six-month strike that ended in 2011. The orchestra said it had more than 10,000 donors again for the first time in a decade, and that its Beethoven festival last February set a new record for classical ticket sales in the Max M. Fisher Music Center, which opened in 2003. But its biggest growth was online: the orchestra said the audience for its Live from Orchestra Hall webcasts grew to 300,000 viewers.”
Posted December 12, 2013
Detroit Symphony photo by Mandi Wright / Detroit Free Press
