On Wednesday’s (8/15) Crosscut.com (Seattle), David Brewster writes that the Seattle Symphony is hitting a new stride. “This past season, the first with the symphony’s popular new conductor, Ludovic Morlot, quickly repositioned the orchestra as far more contemporary in approach and broader in audience appeal. Under the SSO’s new executive director, Simon Woods, an Englishman with a flair for developing younger audiences, the orchestra has enjoyed, Woods says, ‘an incredible year on just about every front.’ The season certainly began with a bang last September, with Morlot conducting before a packed house visibly falling in love with the new maestro. … The metrics Woods cites for the past year are impressive. According to Woods, this year will be ‘at or a hair’s breadth away from breaking even,’ the first time in years. Donations toward the $24 million annual budget will hit a new high of $9.5 million. Ticket sales, already a remarkably high percentage of income (45 percent), are up 2 percent. … There was a lot of damage to be overcome, lending urgency to the rapid reinvention of the SSO. The past years of accumulating deficits have produced a total deficit of (gulp) $11 million. … Another possibly serious hurdle is the labor agreement with the symphony musicians, whose current contract expires on August 31.”
Posted August 15, 2012
