{"id":23680,"date":"2014-11-28T09:40:27","date_gmt":"2014-11-28T14:40:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/?p=23680"},"modified":"2014-11-28T16:29:37","modified_gmt":"2014-11-28T21:29:37","slug":"the-scoop-the-toronto-symphony-orchestra-announces-the-deficit-era-is-over","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/2014\/11\/28\/the-scoop-the-toronto-symphony-orchestra-announces-the-deficit-era-is-over\/","title":{"rendered":"THE SCOOP | Toronto Symphony Orchestra Announce the End of the “Deficit Era”"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Photo:
Photo: John Loper<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It\u2019s been a challenging few years for the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. With a 15% drop in attendance, a 1.2 million dollar deficit from last year (and $800,000 the year before) the stakes are high.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0TSO isn’t\u00a0the only one struggling in Toronto. Despite spinning it otherwise<\/a>, the\u00a0Canadian Opera Company announced<\/a>\u00a0at their Annual General Meeting last month a dismal\u00a0financial outlook. They did their best to focus on the positives of an average 4% attendance growth, but the fact was\u00a0overall ticket sales were down, along with subscriptions and tickets sales to those under 30 (the most important).<\/p>\n

While many arts presenters react to declines with heavy\u00a0cuts to programming and staff, to its\u00a0credit, the TSO responded by evolving.\u00a0This was seen\u00a0over\u00a0an extraordinarily active year<\/a> for the TSO, which also marked Peter Oundjian\u2019s 10th season as Music Director.<\/p>\n

This summer, the Orchestra announced a multi-disc agreement with Chandos Records and enjoyed a profitable European Tour in August. They also landed<\/a> a new C.E.O. – one of the best in the business – ex-Banff impresario Jeff Melanson. Though these changes would not have affected the financials for this year’s\u00a0Annual Report (as their fiscal year ends in March), it shows the ship is pointed in the right direction.<\/p>\n

So this year was a test of sorts – with the burning question: can they turn it around?<\/p>\n

It seems\u00a0the answer is an emphatic “yes”.<\/p>\n

On Thursday, November 27, 2014 \u2013 At TSO\u2019s Annual General Meeting, Christopher Hodgson, Chair of the TSO Board of Directors stated the TSO is now\u00a0in the black, with money to spare.\u00a0Total revenue is up by just over $660K.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Toronto Symphony Orchestra\u2019s 2013\/2014 season was a great success \u2013 both artistically and financially,” Hodgson said. “In 2012\/2013, the TSO increased annual funding for operations by $1 million. Not only was that level of funding exceeded in 2013\/2014, but by year-end, the organization had raised an additional $1.5 million in support of the Orchestra\u2019s August 2014 European Tour, the first overseas tour in 14 years.\u201d<\/p>\n

The TSO\u2019s operating expenses for the 2013\/2014 season<\/a> were $23,717,860 with revenues of $23,940,189, resulting in a modest surplus of $222,329.\u00a0The success was due in part to fundraising revenues that increased $687,723 over fiscal 2013.<\/p>\n

Despite a decrease in government grants and in foundation transfers over 2012-13, ticket sales were up by $400,000 at 37% of total income.\u00a0Fundraising and special events increased by 500% \u00a0and represented 28% of income, government operating grants represented 22%, gifts from the Toronto Symphony Foundation represented 9%, and touring and other sources accounted for the remaining 4%.<\/p>\n

\"TSO-genmeetingstats\"
Graphic from Toronto Symphony Orchestra ‘s Anual Report – 2013\/14<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

Over the 2013\/2014 season, the TSO presented 132 performances (two more than last year), with a total attendance of 257,108. Yet they managed to cut production costs down by $550,000 and marketing costs\u00a0by $186,000. And although there was a marked increase in fundraising costs, this paid off in spades through revenue.<\/p>\n

TSO President & C.E.O. Jeff Melanson stated \u201cThe TSO has a tremendous impact on our community, with tens of thousands of people of all ages being enriched by live orchestral performances each year. This community connects with us as committed subscribers, curious single-ticket buyers, school groups, visitors to Toronto, and devoted patrons and supporters. The future is bright for the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. We are an organization strong in people \u2013 musicians, staff, and volunteers \u2013 with a surplus of ideas and enthusiasm. We are an innovative and dynamic orchestra in one of the world\u2019s great cities. The possibilities are many, and we have exciting days ahead.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is good news, not only for the TSO, but for the city of Toronto.<\/p>\n

Michael Vincent<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s been a challenging few years for the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. With a 15% drop in attendance, a 1.2 million dollar deficit from last year (and $800,000 the year before) the stakes are high.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":23681,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[117,39,60],"tags":[5131,5132,1721,3360],"yst_prominent_words":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2014\/11\/oundjian_3.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9bakr-69W","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23680"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23680"}],"version-history":[{"count":30,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23680\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23724,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23680\/revisions\/23724"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23681"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23680"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23680"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23680"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=23680"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}