Internet is future of the orchestra

The Philadelphia Orchestra, facing declining audiences for its main subscription series and an attendant downturn in ticket revenue, is proceeding with aggressive plans to deliver offerings via Internet2.

With new high-definition cameras now installed in Verizon Hall, the orchestra is already transmitting virtual concerts around the country - such as one Tuesday night - and has bigger aspirations to bring its sound, via digital proxy, to venues in Asia and Europe.

"This is the future of this organization, our ability to earn new revenue and enhance the orchestra's presence around the world," orchestra board chairman Harold A. Sorgenti said at yesterday's annual meeting of the Philadelphia Orchestra Association.

"Our goal is to reestablish the Philadelphia Orchestra's preeminence as a worldwide presence," said president James Undercofler.

Among the other orchestra news shared by staff and board members at yesterday's meeting in the Kimmel Center:

The orchestra believes an audit will show that it balanced its $46.9 million (combined Philadelphia Orchestra/Philly Pops) budget for the fiscal year that ended Aug. 31. That would be its third consecutive balanced annual budget.

Attendance slipped for the subscription series. The percentage of capacity was 82, the same as last year, but because that percentage was achieved with six fewer concerts, overall attendance was down 7 percent.

The orchestra's endowment campaign stands at $105 million raised, with the goal of $125 million. (The current market value of the combined Philadelphia Orchestra/Academy of Music endowment is just over $200 million.)

The Philly Pops, now part of the orchestra, played to houses 90 percent full and turned in a surplus, contributing $600,000 to the Orchestra Association's bottom line.

Associate conductor Rossen Milanov has signed an extension to his contract, keeping him here at least through the end of the 2008-09 season.

The orchestra's annual meeting was Janus-like as usual. Sorgenti congratulated the organization for recently settling a musicians' contract without "rancor or abuse," and reported that plans were under way for restoration of the Academy's ballroom. Work is expected to commence in the spring.

The orchestra, he said, was recently granted permission by Cardinal Justin Rigali of the Philadelphia Archdiocese to perform Verdi's Requiem led by Christoph Eschenbach in the Cathedral Basilica of SS. Peter and Paul. The concert would echo the Verdi Requiem Riccardo Muti led there nearly three decades ago. A date has not been set, he said, though the orchestra hoped for some time in 2009.

Highlights from committee reports:

The orchestra is cutting back to five family concerts this season after having expanded to 10.

Four new Sunday concerts will be added in 2008-09.

The orchestra now has 675 volunteers who helped raise $1,327,000 last season.

A search for a new music director was mentioned only in passing (though perhaps an update was given in the board meeting that followed, which was not open to the public).

The leitmotif of the meeting was how to attract elusive audiences.

Undercofler said the orchestra had commissioned a marketing survey to look at audience taste in an effort to "meet the musical preferences of our audience." He said the orchestra planned to continue to "deepen" its relationship with audiences it already has, and, with the help of new technology, recapture what, at least telescoped through a lens now decades old, is perceived as worldwide attention for the Philadelphia Orchestra.

The orchestra, he said, now has a production team in place to package concerts from Verizon Hall. Tuesday night's Stravinsky and Tchaikovsky, for instance, were broadcast in a test transmission to a dozen or so colleges and universities in the Unitd States, including Indiana University and the Eastman School of Music. In addition to the concert itself, the Internet 2 broadcast was cushioned by interviews and pre-produced materials.

The orchestra's dabbling in new modes of delivery was different from the highly lauded satellite broadcasts by the Metropolitan Opera to movie theaters, said orchestra board member Michael D. Zisman, managing director of Internet Capital Group.

"The Met was a lesson to all of us, but they [last year] lost money on it because satellite transmission is very expensive," he said. "For us, the ongoing cost is $30,000 to $40,000 a year to stay connected."

Whether it's through Internet2 or some other mode of delivery, Undercofler said the Global Concert Series was critical to the orchestra's future.

"We have at least two or three other ideas in development," he said.