Out of the Red, S.D. Symphony Now Strains to Fill Seats

San Diego Symphony executive director Wesley Brustad has discovered that there is no automatic reward for doing the right thing. Under his leadership, the local orchestra ended its fiscal year on Oct. 1 in the black for the fourth year in a row. For an organization that had lurched from crisis to crisis in a sea of red ink for more than a decade before Brustad joined the staff in 1986, this is no small accomplishment.

“We also got rid of the whole debt this year, which was close to $4.5 million hanging over our heads. I would say that this year has been an outrageous success when you roll that into it,” Brustad said.

But, if October opened with cheery figures from the accountants, the attendance figures for the first month of the 1990-91 season leave little room for unbridled optimism.

“Our audience hasn’t materialized. We’re playing very well, and the audience just isn’t there.”

After the predicted flood of ticket buyers for music director Yoav Talmi’s season-opening programs Oct. 5-7, attendance at symphony concerts went into an immediate tailspin. Houses for the next three weekends hovered just below 50% capacity in the 2,255-seat hall. Based on average attendance in recent seasons, the orchestra’s target is at least 60% capacity.

San Diego Symphony concerts that have featured major choral works have frequently sold out in past seasons. But three performances of the Faure Requiem Oct. 19-21 with the La Jolla Civic-University Chorus sold only 3,349 of a potential 6,765 seats.

Brustad said the number of season subscribers has remained constant from last year to this year, but single ticket sales are off.

“I’m not saying the sky’s falling after three weeks of work, but I’m not going to wait for half of the year to go by to address the problem,” he said.

In comparison to other major San Diego arts institutions, the symphony lags behind in its audience development. In the past year, the Old Globe Theatre has played to average houses of 91% on its three stages, which total 1,418 seats. The La Jolla Playhouse, whose current season ends later this month, projects a house average of 95%, an increase from last year’s 89% average, officials said. (The Mandell Weiss Theatre, in which most of its plays are given, seats 492, and the Warren Theatre seats 248.) The San Diego Opera officials said they closed the Opera’s 1989-90 season of five opera productions in May with a record 96% of the 3,000-seat Civic Theatre filled.

Orchestras with comparable winter subscription series draw better houses than the San Diego Symphony. The Houston Symphony, for example, averages an 80% house in its 3,000-seat auditorium. Houston has experienced an increase in attendance this season, which opened Sept. 8, due in part to a hefty increase in its subscriber base of just over 1,000, compared to its 1989-90 season. Houston’s 18-week winter season of classical offerings is just one week longer than the San Diego Symphony’s subscription season at Copley Symphony Hall.

The Seattle Symphony, also with an 18-week winter season, regularly plays to a 90% house in its 3,100-seat hall, according to executive vice president Edward Birdwell.

“Our subscription sales for the season that just opened are down about 2 to 4 percent, but in the first couple of weeks, single ticket sales have more than made up the difference,” Birdwell said.

When the Old Globe experienced a 6% drop in subscribers for the 1990 summer season, it mounted a single-ticket buyer blitz to recoup the difference, according to marketing director Joe Kobryner. In order to win back subscribers for its upcoming winter season, the Old Globe has added subscriber perks such as a patron service representative on duty at all performances and the privilege of exchanging tickets by fax.

At Brustad’s direction, a direct-mail campaign has just begun in an attempt to lure the elusive single-ticket buyer into Copley Symphony Hall. But addressing this immediate problem is only part of Brustad’s strategy to keep the orchestra in its recovery mode.

“My priority right now is to secure our base, and I don’t feel secure, not by a long shot. A permanent expanded summer venue is the No. 1 thing that will secure this orchestra and give it growth and a stable base.”

From Brustad’s vantage point, this means the 17-week winter subscription series--the symphony’s meat-and-potatoes programming--will not expand. Any expansion in the orchestra’s programming will be focused on the summer pops series at the new outdoor venue on San Diego Bay.

“The days of growing to be like a Chicago (Symphony) or a Cleveland (Orchestra) are gone, and they’re gone everywhere. I don’t need any more weeks (of symphony performances) here. I do 156 concerts right now in this town--that’s more concerts than most people ever care to go to.”

Brustad started marketing the 1991 summer pops series in the middle of this year’s summer season, and multicolor summer pops brochures fill the racks in the Copley Symphony Hall lobbies.

“All I have to do is look up the road 100 miles, and I see what’s happening up there. In Los Angeles, they have embraced the Philharmonic through the Hollywood Bowl. We are an outdoor society, and I’m convinced that’s the way to go.”