Philharmonic Breaks Even

Despite some bumps and hitches along the way in programming and fund-raising, the Philharmonic Society of Orange County managed to break even during the just-completed fiscal year, according to unaudited figures presented Monday at the group’s annual meeting.

The Irvine-based society raised or earned $4.1 million during 1999-2000 and spent $4.09 million staging concerts and providing free educational programs that reach some 250,000 youngsters. The organization’s total income dropped 13% from the previous year’s $4.7 million.

“Considering some of the curves and turns this year, we came out really well,” Dean Corey, the society’s executive director, said in an interview before the evening meeting at the Orange County Museum of Art. “I look at it as one of the best years we have had, because it tested the organization and we were able to [find] some alternatives.”

The biggest challenge was the launch last fall of a major new annual event, the Eclectic Orange Festival. The festival emphasized new music and featured events that mixed genres or were built on unusual collaborations. It accounted for about half the society’s overall programming and ticket revenue for the year.

While it took in more than $500,000, the festival wasn’t the earner that a more tested attraction--performances of all nine Beethoven symphonies--had been the previous year. One of the year’s expected big draws, famed mezzo-soprano Cecilia Bartoli, was lost when she had to cancel a January performance at the Irvine Barclay Theatre because of illness. Bartoli is back on the Philharmonic Society’s schedule with a Feb. 26, 2001 recital at the Orange County Performing Arts Center in Costa Mesa.

Corey said that the need to use the Santa Ana High School auditorium for two concerts that normally would have been staged at OCPAC may have contributed to a 4% dip in subscription income during the year. Scheduling conflicts led to concerts by Les Arts Florissants and the Czech Philharmonic being switched from OCPAC’s 3,000-seat Segerstrom Hall to the much smaller and, for most concert-goers, less familiar high school auditorium.

“A number of people don’t like a series where you have to go to two venues,” Corey said.

There were fund-raising setbacks to overcome as well.

One consistent corporate donor was bought out, and a foundation that had supported the society ceased operations, Corey said. Consequently, an expected $250,000 from the two sources never materialized.

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The Committees of the Philharmonic Society, a 1,200-member support group that raises money for its educational programs, had to improvise when its big annual event, a home-design showcase, was canceled because of logistical problems in securing a site. The Committees raised $405,000 with alternate events, down from $687,000 the year before.

One youth-oriented concert program, “Cruzando Fronteras: Crossing Borders,” had to be pushed back until next fall because of the shortfall. “It gave us a little more time to plan the program, anyway,” Corey said.

Other fund-raising efforts made up some of the slack. The society’s roster of individual donors giving $50,000 or more grew from 21 at the start of the year to 32.

The Philharmonic Society sold 42,264 tickets to its 38 concerts during the year. Paid attendance ran 83% of capacity at the 750-seat Irvine Barclay Theatre, 72% at the 3,000-seat OCPAC and 88% at the 1,550-seat Santa Ana High School.

Ticket revenues, $1.1 million, paid 27% of the society’s expenses; donations and a small amount of interest income covered the rest. Slightly more than half the budget went to concert expenses, 24% was spent on administrative and personnel costs, and 22% went to marketing and fund-raising.

Corey said that the Philharmonic Society will head into next year with a war chest of about $2.1 million in donations and pledges.