Year-End Review and Looking Ahead - by Maryellen Gleason, President & CEO
Hi everyone. I have been enjoying our new blog and have been thinking about your comments and suggestions. I most enjoy the discussion about the music and very much appreciate the thinking from all of you about how we can improve on many levels. Further I am reminded from several comments that we must continue to communicate the progress we have made as an institution so everyone can share in our collective success.
As this season draws to a close The Phoenix Symphony will have reached a new all time high in paid concert attendance of 116,000 (which is the combination of single tickets and series unit sales). Likewise we again have achieved a new high in concert revenues and YTD contributed revenues. Thanks to great support from our board and community we have finished the last two years in the black after several years of deficits. Of course we could do better and need to do even better to achieve our goals and finance our ambitions. Next week I am going to repost on our website our Annual Reports with audited financial statements from the past two years which is evidence of how much our community cares about our symphony. Our work is important and the key to our continued growth and prosperity is for all of you to spread the word about our concerts and music making with Michael and our great orchestra and encourage people to buy tickets and make contributions.
Maryellen GleasonPresident & CEO
11 Comments:
Dear Ms Gleason,
Thank you for the note reqarding the stability of the Phoenix Symphony. Thanks to you and the hard working board, you seem to be heading in the right direction. A few years ago, my understanding was the Phoenix Symphony musicians were one of the lowest paid musicians when comparing to other world class orchestras. Can you elaborate on how the fantastic musicians have fared by the successes of you, Michael Christie and the board?
I have enjoyed the Phoenix Symphony off and on for several years and am pleased with the financial stability. My only complaints regard the Coffee Concerts: (1) I would love to have full-length concerts rather than limiting the music to fit the 60-65 minute time; (2) the scheduling is very awkward and we have lost several of our Rio Verde ticket holders because of this. Couldn't the Coffee Concerts be spread out so that we don't have long gaps without any and then two or three too close together?
Maryellen - You should know that people arent really interested in how well you are doing as a business. And those speakers at the concerts who come out and pat themselves on the back and do a hard sell? Boring. Let them BLOG if they want to. Let us have MUSIC when we go to Symphony Hall. Thanks, but no thanks. One thing tho -- having Joel Levin there to greet us and even that goofy thing he does about how long everyone has been attending? FUN. Thanks for that.
Azjane said: "You should know that people aren't really interested in how well you are doing as a business."
I surely hope that Azjane is wrong, because we all ought to be interested if we want the orchestra to survive. Endless financial crises are not only bad business, they damage the musicians' morale and may damage the artistic results. The orchestra needs to get to a stable financial situation and stay there long term, so that it can concentrate on artistic excellence. Audience members can, of course, help by contributing and/or helping to enlarge the size of the audience.
Grayce
Hi Grayce - But of course. dont get me wrong -- Im interested and happy the PSO is doing well. Just tired of hearing about it on concert nights.
Talk and gadgets do not interest me. Good performances of good music do. I guess the orchestra can go in whatever direction they want to. But I won't be renewing my subscription.
I have enjoyed the Phoenix Symphony off and on for several years and am pleased with the financial stability. My only complaints regard the Coffee Concerts: (1) I would love to have full-length concerts rather than limiting the music to fit the 60-65 minute time; (2) the scheduling is very awkward and we have lost several of our Rio Verde ticket holders because of this. Couldn't the Coffee Concerts be spread out so that we don't have long gaps without any and then two or three too close
First, in regard to the Anonymous comment on the Coffee Classics series and the spacing of the concerts throughout next season. There are two factors that impact the Coffee series schedule. The primary factor is our master orchestra schedule and when we can gain access to Symphony Hall during our 38 week season. This past year we were able to gain access to Symphony Hall in 26 of our 38 weeks. Since the Classics Series has 16 weeks it is inevitable that some of the weeks will be back to back. The second factor impacting the Coffee schedule is the program content meaning the music and the guest artists. Frankly we wanted to offer our Coffee customers some great soloists and so the outcome is a couple of back to back weeks of concerts -- which we agree is not optimal. If we had 38 contiguous weeks in Symphony Hall or our own hall we would be able to space all concerts on all series out at a more regular pace. However, owning and operating a concert hall is not our top priority at this time. Eventually we will have to address this issue but at the moment we are focused on our artistic product and attendant artistic investments in addition to even greater degrees of operating stability with a much larger endowment, higher ticket sales and increased annual fund contributions. Sorry Azjane to go on about this….
Second, in regard to a longer Coffee concert. Based on input from our customers, we did introduce this year (with our return to Symphony Hall) a full length and full priced series of matinees on Sunday afternoons. We can survey the Coffee customers again this Fall to see if they would like to change to a full length and full priced Friday concert. Please note that the Sunday lowest end “series” ticket is $15 but the block of seats in this range is much smaller than on the Coffee. I get the most complaints when the Coffee concert goes over one hour which our customers who tell us that more than 60 minutes compromises the lunch hour and social time. I also get complaints if the tickets to Coffee increase in price on the lowest end ticket which is $15 per concert if you buy the entire series. I should report that the Coffee subscriber base is the largest single concert going group of The Phoenix Symphony with a range of 1,200 to 1,800 subscribers depending on the year out of 2,316 seats per concert. This volume of subscribers indicates there is a demand for an hour long concert on Friday morning in Phoenix, Arizona. The Coffee subscriber base is comprised of a mostly female decision maker with an average age of about 67 based on the 2004 audience survey. We are careful with pricing in the Coffee series because many of our Coffee customers live on fixed incomes. On the other hand we recently did a wealth assessment of the Coffee subscribers and about 20% are quite wealthy.
A word on concert formats for our Classics Series in Symphony Hall. As you may have seen in Michael’s comments on this blog we have taken the concert formats for the Classics Series a step further this season. Our Thursday night is a “traditional” format presenting the pinnacle of classical music with no video screens and this group is the most conservative concert going audience and represents the highest concentration of major donors. The Friday morning Coffee series is the 60 minute daytime entertainment offering that is accessible to seniors and others who want to enjoy an hour long concert in their hectic lives. The Coffee group even includes downtown workers on their lunch hour! Saturday night is a full length concert with experiments such as the video screen and Keeping Score and more to come here on this front TBD. Saturday night is a social “date night” experience for many of our customers. Sunday afternoon is a full length matinee with interactive lecture and audience discussion and we see many families now attending together and then going to dinner. Of course there are exceptions to all of this but generally speaking these are the concert formats and their intent.
Maryellen
Hey Maryellen -- Thanks for explaining who shows up at all of the different classics sessions - Thursday nite donors, Friday coffee enthusiasts, Saturday night date night, Sunday family. You see it all, but we usually just hear/see our one night so the overview is really helpful. Nice summary. Thanks.
As part of “looking ahead,”, I have a request and suggestion: bring back Xian Zhang, please!
I attended a concert she conducted during the past season, and then listened to the broadcast on KBAQ last night (7/24). What a joy to hear the orchestra play so well and communicate so well under her leadership! No wonder she’s a rising young star with the NY Phil. Please invite her back for more guest appearances with the orchestra.
Grayce
When do you announce if you lost or made money for last year? Is your first concert a sellout? We don't hear any publicity
Addressing the upward curve of improvement: Wouldn't it be great to actually put the publicity department to work and have advertisements that are VISIBLE. Suggestions: Radio plugs that are not exclusive to the boring classical station. Billboards. Television ads! Many orchestras have had strong campaigns and they have paid off. It is known that this is very expensive but certainly there is a way to tie in corporate sponsorships along the way as well.
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