November 2, 2011
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
2010/11 CELEBRATED AS A MILESTONE SEASON
FOR THE OREGON SYMPHONY
(PORTLAND, Ore.) – At their meeting last week, the Oregon Symphony’s Board of Directors approved audited financial statements for the year ending June 30, 2011. The season produced a net surplus of $192,000, which the Board voted to designate for use in 2011/12.
The financial results mirrored the artistic accomplishments of the 2010/11 season, the eighth under the musical direction of Carlos Kalmar. As President Elaine Calder noted, “The Oregon Symphony finished its 115th season with both an artistic and a financial surplus. It was an extraordinary year and one that feels like a real turning point. For the second year in a row revenues have exceeded expenses, despite the additional cost of taking the orchestra to New York’s Spring for Music festival and making a recording of Carnegie program.
“We intended our performance at Carnegie Hall to showcase the orchestra in a daring program, and it did. But the response exceeded our highest expectations. The orchestra played Carlos’s program, Music for a Time of War, with a passionate urgency that is fully captured on the recording.”
New York critics responded accordingly: “A gripping performance,” noted The New York Times. The New Yorker’s Alex Ross proclaimed the performance as “the highlight of the festival and one of the most gripping events of the current season.” Musical America’s Sedgwick Clark picked the performance by the “virtuoso Oregonians” as his “favorite concert of the series and the entire season.” Locally, The Oregonian hailed it as “a triumph, capping eight years of growth under Kalmar's demanding baton.”
The program, which included Ives’ The Unanswered Question, Adams’ The Wound Dresser, Britten’s Sinfonia da Requiem and Vaughan Williams’ Symphony No. 4, was recorded on the PentaTone label and released last week—to an immediate and laudatory review from The Oregonian. “Anyone interested in the Oregon Symphony’s ascendancy to the national stage should hear this CD,” wrote music critic David Stabler. The recording is the orchestra’s first with Music Director Carlos Kalmar on the podium.
The 2010/11 season included a variety of work ranging from pieces new for Portland audiences to classical favorites. Performed for the first time were Prangcharoen’s Phenomenon, Bolcom’s Violin Concerto, Sibelius’ The Oceanides, and Dalbavie’s Color. These Oregon Symphony premieres were balanced with audience favorites—Beethoven’s Eroica and Pastoral symphonies, Rachmaninoff’s 3rd Piano Concerto, and Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto. Audiences were also treated to a lineup of international guest artists that included cellist Yo-Yo Ma (returning for the first time in 12 years), pianist Lang Lang, and violinists Hilary Hahn and James Ehnes, both making long overdue Portland debuts.
These artistic highlights drove financial numbers that were extremely encouraging, especially during these challenging economic times. Ticket revenue of $5.7 million was up 5% over the previous year with a 6% increase in the number of tickets sold (130,530). Contributed income of $7.4 million was down slightly year over year by 5%, attributable primarily to the effects of the recession on endowment returns and fewer bequests. Combined revenue of $14,089,554 and expenses of $13,897,386 yielded an annual surplus of $192,168. This surplus marks the second consecutive season that the Symphony has posted positive year-end financial results.
Concluding her report, President Calder paid special attention to the contributions made by so many individuals during the season. “A very special thank you must go to our orchestra members who have been working—and playing—so impressively and to our entire staff who support them, all of whom have taken considerable salary reductions in order to keep our expenses within our current budgetary constraints. And a special round of applause must go to our Music Director Carlos Kalmar whose passionate leadership continues to inspire us all.”
Earlier this year the Board renewed Kalmar’s contract through June, 2015 and committed to three additional recordings over the next four years. He and the orchestra are slated to return to Carnegie Hall in May 2013 for the third annual Spring for Music festival.
The orchestra’s performance—and the local and national attention to their extraordinary level of playing—is having a dynamic effect on the current 2011/12 season. With the new season barely begun, subscriptions have climbed above the 10,100 mark, over 101,000 tickets—51% of the entire season—have already been sold, and ticket revenue has surged to over $4.6 million. The 2010/11 artistic and financial accomplishments have also inspired the confidence of many donors and major foundations who have already renewed and increased their support.
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CONTACT:
Jim Fullan
Vice President, Communications, Marketing & Sales
503-416-6347
jfullan@orsymphony.org