“The big news at the Detroit Symphony Orchestra’s annual meeting Thursday was that Music Director Leonard Slatkin and President and CEO Anne Parsons have both renewed their contracts through the 2016-2017 season,” writes Michael Hodges in Thursday’s (12/11) Detroit News. “The DSO reported encouraging numbers across virtually all categories. For the second year in a row, the DSO wound up in the black, this time with a small surplus of $60,000. … Subscriptions increased across all series to 13,760, and overall ticket sales—including individual tickets—netted an additional $200,000 over last year. ‘The most important thing in 2014 is that audience and donor base for the symphony grew another year,’ said Executive Vice President Paul Hogle, ‘and that resulted in the balanced budget.’ … The subscriptions boost is particularly encouraging…. ‘Most performing arts nonprofits are experiencing shifts from subscriptions to single-ticket purchasing,’ said League of American Orchestras President and CEO Jesse Rosen. ‘This is yet another sign of important progress for the DSO.’ … Its educational webcasts and curricular materials went out to 20,566 Detroit schoolkids. That will grow. Next year, thanks to an as-yet-undisclosed seven-digit donation by Clyde and Helen Wu, the program also will penetrate the seven suburban communities served by the orchestra’s Neighborhood Concert Series.”
Posted December 12, 2014
