Chicago Symphony in black; paid attendance soars

The Chicago Symphony is reporting lots of good news: it surpassed its annual fundraising goal with 4 percent over last year, has increased its ticket sales, exceeding 85 percent paid capacity for the second consecutive season, and balanced its budget.

This is heady news among orchestras, which are mostly reporting ticket sales slumps. But in the Windy City, ticket sales are up, fundraising is up and the endowment is up. The orchestra's endowment is $233 million (about three times our own CSO's) and it's annual operating budget is $58 million.

They report a significant jump in single ticket sales for 2006-07, up 3 percent. About 30 percent of their main orchestra series SOLD OUT or were over 95 percent capacity. (Orchestra Hall seats 2,500.)

Bucking trends here in Cincy, their main series subscription renewal rate was more than 87 percent, the highest in more than a decade.

This while in a search for a music director to succeed Daniel Barenboim.

After reading that -- and because I was already planning to be in Chicago -- I decided to attend a concert last Saturday. Stay tuned for some concert impressions.