Orchestra Conducts Good Year

Organizers of Orange County’s Pacific Symphony reported Monday that the 2002-03 season was the orchestra’s 12th profitable one in a row.

Operating income for the fiscal year that ended June 30 was $11,391,066, against $11,380,629 in expenses, leaving the 25-year-old symphony with a surplus of $10,437.

The amount may not be a lot, said Christopher Trela, spokesman for the Santa Ana-based symphony, but it’s not unusual for orchestras to operate in the red. The previous fiscal year, the symphony had a surplus of $29,422, Trela said.

The symphony generated $4,994,439 in contributions, up 19% from the previous fiscal year, and $4,951,508 in ticket sales, a 6% increase, Trela said.

Its success is proof that directors’ goal to “give people a good mix of what they want to hear and new music they may not be as familiar with,” pays off, Trela said. He cited, for example, the annual American Composers Festival.

In March, the festival will premiere works by Chinese American composers. “They are very famous composers in their own right,” Trela said, “but almost all the music is world premieres .... To hedge our bets, we have [cellist] Yo-Yo Ma to perform one of the world premieres. And he doesn’t come cheap,” he said.

The symphony’s smaller, more intimate programs like Chateau Wolfgang and Cafe Ludwig are consistently sold out, Trela said.

“Ludwig is so popular we don’t have any single tickets,” he said. “If people are lucky they might be able to get a pair” the day of the concert.

The cabaret setting for Cafe Ludwig at Founders Hall in the Performing Arts Center seats 250 to 300 at tables of four. Coffee and desserts are served along with discussions of the music.

That same formula has paid off in the Classical Connection series on Saturday afternoons, Trela said. Music director Carl St.Clair talks about the featured composer and the context in which the piece was created, before the orchestra plays movements to demonstrate different themes. “So when the orchestra performs the piece, you have this connection because you understand the music as you’re hearing it,” he said.

On a grander scale, the summer concert series at the Verizon Wireless Amphitheater has more than 5,000 subscribers, Trela said. And with picnicking and half-price or free tickets for children, depending on the seating, the concerts routinely draw as many as 12,000 people, he said.

The relatively young symphony has been growing for more than a dozen years, Trela said. “In the last 14 years we’ve gone from a budget of $2 million a year to $12 million a year,” he said.

But, as always, Trela said, the bottom line is pleasing the audience: “If you’re not providing programming that people want to see, you’re losing money.”