“This weekend’s ‘Disney in Concert’ event at the Orpheum is likely to be a win-win-win situation,” writes Jon W. Sparks in Tuesday’s (3/24) Commercial Appeal (Memphis, Tennessee). “Families win because kids adore all things Disney and will get to see film clips from favorite movies accompanied by the Memphis Symphony Orchestra. The MSO wins because it gets virtually all the proceeds from ticket sales. Then there’s the Orpheum, which is a winner because it came up with the notion to help the financially strapped orchestra by bringing in this production. ‘I had this idea,’ says Pat Halloran, president and CEO of the nonprofit Memphis Development Foundation, which operates the Orpheum. ‘I thought we could help the symphony financially while also helping create a new audience.’ He contacted Roland Valliere, the MSO’s president and CEO.… For two concerts, the Orpheum would sell tickets and get donations. It would pay its own necessary expenses, such as for stagehands and security, and the rest of it would go to the symphony.… ‘We’re emerging from a financial crisis, and in many ways we’re ahead of schedule,’ Valliere says.… ‘Pat and his team stepping up to assist means they’re forgoing revenues to benefit the symphony. That’s extraordinary.’ ”
Posted March 26, 2015
