In Monday’s (12/2) Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Jeremy Reynolds writes, “For me, the opportunity to hear [music] live is priceless. For many of my less classically inclined friends, however, [a] $40 ticket price was an insurmountable sticking point when I invited them to the performance. Pittsburgh’s largest classical organizations, the symphony and opera, typically start their tickets at $25 and $15, respectively. The ballet also starts at $25. It’s actually the city’s smaller, lesser-known organizations that typically charge higher prices.… All of these organizations have great discounts for students and seniors, and the larger organizations I mentioned do charge significantly higher prices for their best seats, more than $100 at the high end. But it’s the low end of ticket prices that will keep out the casual listener, the friend of someone who wants to go, the young couple interested in trying something new for date night. To be clear: I’m not saying that these groups aren’t worth their ticket price and more. But I’d certainly argue that they need more flexibility for different sorts of listeners if they want to continue building back their attendance numbers … There are plenty of good options for organizations to introduce more flexible pricing.”
