Orchestra’s Earnings Up This Summer : Funding: The Pacific Symphony’s five-concert outdoor series brings in more income than last year’s, even though attendance falls slightly.

Despite a slight drop in attendance, Pacific Symphony generated more money this year than in 1990 from its outdoor summer series at Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre.

The five-concert series drew 40,727 attendees this summer, compared to 42,959 last year, according to executive director Louis Spisto. It was the first drop in total attendance since the orchestra launched the series in 1987. But income this year was $618,768 compared to $607,384 from last year, Spisto said Monday.

“Ticket prices were a little higher (this year),” Spisto explained. “But also last season there was a 50-cent per ticket surcharge for the police. This year we basically just paid the cost of police services (directly). That allowed us to take more of the ticket income directly.”

This was the first summer that the Pacific’s new music director, Carl St. Clair, had conducted outdoors. He led two of the five programs, the “Symphony for a New World” concert on Aug. 17 and a Beethoven program on Aug. 31. Those programs drew the two smallest audiences, roughly 5,733 and 6,269, respectively. The highs were the 10,300 at the July Fourth program, and the 11,116 at the Tchaikovsky finale on Saturday.

“Obviously, Carl St. Clair conducting in the summer concerts was an important addition,” Spisto said. “Without a doubt, Carl’s programs were the strongest artistically, but not necessarily the most popular by virtue of the fact that he wasn’t conducting the most popular events--the Fourth of July program, which is a pops program, and the Tchaikovsky Spectacular, with fireworks. Carl may conduct the Tchaikovsky program next year.”

Spisto characterized the season as only “a little bit better than a break-even affair. We’ll have anywhere from a $5,000 to a $25,000 profit across the summer,” he said. The series lost money until 1990, when the orchestra turned a $40,000 profit, Spisto said. “(But) it’s encouraging in this business, where everything requires a subsidy, even to break even. Most summer venues across the country--with the exception of Hollywood Bowl--are in a deficit position. That’s an important comparison.”

(Hollywood Bowl experienced an increase in attendance this year, from 752,919 in 1990 to 772,071 in 1991, but officials declined to give out income figures. “That’s not our policy,” spokeswoman Norma Flynn said on Monday.)

The Pacific also began a six-year contract with Irvine Meadows this summer, guaranteeing five summer concerts a year.

“Basically, that’s all they can offer us,” Spisto said.