The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra.
In Sunday’s (1/26) Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Jeremy Reynolds writes, “A recent Friday performance of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra … featured an exciting, blazingly fast performance of the composer Tchaikovsky’s fifth symphony … [Backstage,] there was an air of optimism. The orchestra, the crown jewel of the Steel City’s arts organizations and an internationally competitive ensemble in terms of playing caliber, is bringing in more cash. ‘Year over year, we’re actually up about $750,000 in terms of overall revenue,’ said Melia Tourangeau, the symphony’s CEO, noting that attendance for the holiday concerts in December broke previous records. The orchestra’s overall attendance was also higher in the 2023-24 season than in the 2018-2019 season, the last season before the COVID-19 pandemic. Still, those numbers aren’t evenly split across the $34 million organization’s offerings … The symphony saw ‘sluggish’ sales for the third year in a row for its classical subscription concerts, the orchestra’s ‘core product,’ Ms. Tourangeau said…. The symphony’s other offerings are seeing increased revenue…. The areas of increased revenue are also not enough to offset an annual deficit the orchestra has been running since the pandemic … The symphony has managed to cover the deficit with carefully managed emergency funding from the pandemic era and additional fundraising. Its deficit is projected to be about $7 million for the fiscal year ending Aug. 31…. Orchestra leadership has a plan in place to scale its earnings to cover future deficits…. And the orchestra’s musicians are ready to pitch in as well.”
