Beethoven Generates Big Bucks for Philharmonic

Spurred by heavy ticket sales for performances of Beethoven’s nine symphonies, the Philharmonic Society of Orange County, the country’s leading presenter of touring orchestras, ended its fiscal year with an operating surplus of $306,208, officials announced.

Income in unaudited figures was reported at just less than $4.7 million, of which $1.4 million came from ticket sales. Nearly a third of total ticket sales income resulted from five concerts in May of Beethoven’s symphonies at the Orange County Performing Arts Center by London’s Orchestre Revolutionnaire et Romantique, led by John Eliot Gardiner.

Total expenses were $4.4 million, up from $3.1 million last year. The major part of that increase resulted from the expense of the Beethoven festival. The organization’s accumulated surplus stands at about $2.2 million.

Paid attendance at 13 concerts the society presented at the center averaged 84%, up from 68% at 12 concerts there in 1997-98. Attendance averaged 83% at 25 Irvine Barclay Theatre programs, (compared with 93% at 18 Irvine Barclay events last year), and 83% at two new events at St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church in Newport Beach. Overall subscription sales rose 15%, to 4,601, during the season.

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The committees of the society raised more than $687,000 to support free music education programs that reach more than 250,000 Orange County children annually. These programs cost the society $2.5 million to put on.

Contributions from corporations, government and special grants totaled about $1.3 million. Individual contributions topped $1.1 million.

Roger Kirwan, newly elected chairman of the Performing Arts Center’s board of directors, was guest speaker at the society’s annual meeting at the Pelican Hill Clubhouse in Newport Beach, at which financial figures were announced Monday.

Gary N. Babick was elected president of the board of directors for the 1999-2000 fiscal year.