“The Oregon Symphony is having a banner season,” writes Linda Baker in the March issue of Oregon Business. “Revenues clocked at nearly $20 million in 2017, up from $14.7 million four years ago. Twenty percent of ticket buyers last year were first-time purchasers. Scott Showalter, president and CEO of the Oregon Symphony, talks about revenue growth, the symphony as performance art … ‘We’ve gone broad and we’ve gone deep. By broad, we’re now playing music to the video game Final Fantasy…. We’ve done country-western music, brought in the National Acrobats of China…. A couple of seasons ago, we added visual elements … that help bring alive the music as was written by Bartók for the opera Bluebeard’s Castle, by Stravinsky for Perséphone. That really excited our audience…. We’re thinking about a speaker series and reaching out even further to connect to our audience.… When I came in it was: “Tech: they don’t give.” Well, we started having conversations with Intel; lo and behold we are a partner of note in developing technology that allows artists to create music without instruments.’ “
Posted February 28, 2018
In photo: Oregon Symphony brass players. Photo: Leah Nash.
