A fast tempo set for Disney Hall sales

In the first public test of the not-quite-complete Walt Disney Concert Hall’s turnstile appeal, the shiny new downtown venue looks like a big draw.

The Los Angeles Philharmonic, which will move down Grand Avenue from the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion to the new hall in October, reports that subscriptions for the 2003-04 season in the new venue are selling twice as fast as this year’s tickets did.

Those results come despite earlier renewal deadlines and a hefty boost in subscription prices, from a range of $14-$82 per performance to $35-$120. Orchestra officials say this puts them two months ahead of where they expected to be, but they also point out that this doesn’t mean the hall is sold out.

Between late November and Jan. 15, the orchestra sold about 15,000 subscriptions, said Philharmonic marketing director Joan Cumming. She estimated the comparable figure for the current season at 7,500.

But Cumming also noted that as it moves into the new hall, the orchestra is lengthening its season, which means a substantial boost in the number of tickets it has to sell. From 98 performances in the 3,086-seat Chandler Pavilion in 2002-03, the orchestra will move to 151 performances in the 2,265-seat Disney Hall (excluding galas and opening activities). The result is that the Philharmonic, which sold about 60% of its seats last year, now has a ticket inventory that’s about 13% larger.

This means that tens of thousands of tickets will still be in play in mid-April, when subscription sales begin for buyers who aren’t subscribers now. (A subscription buys tickets to a series of programs. In 2003-04, the cheapest will buy four programs; the priciest, 10 programs.)

In September, individual Philharmonic tickets go on the block, Cumming noted, and will include a new, more affordable category: choral seats within the “orchestra view” section (behind the orchestra, in spots where singers will be placed when the orchestra is joined by choral groups) at $15 each. Because those seats won’t be available for some programs, they can’t be offered on a subscription basis. But for the vast majority of performances, at least 50 orchestra view seats will be available.

Orchestra officials also note that student and senior rush tickets -- unsold seats that are released two hours before curtain -- will remain at $10.