The Detroit Symphony Orchestra’s new season officially starts this weekend.
DSO executive vice president Paul Hogle says ticket sales for the orchestra’s 2011-12 season are going pretty well as of right now. That's good news for an organization that lost around $1.8 million last year due to a six-month musician’s strike.
Hogle projects ticket sales will be "somewhere between 75% - 78% sold on our classical concerts," compared to around 63% of tickets sold the year before the strike.
Hogle says renewed interest in Detroit is spurring on ticket sales, as well as the fact that the DSO rolled back its ticket prices significantly for this season.
The DSO still owes $54 million in debt on its Max M Fisher building. Hogle says talks with the banks are ongoing and he’s optimistic something will work out. Until the debt situation is resolved, the DSO cannot raise any money for its endowment, which stands at $19 million in unrestricted funds - down from more than $50 million before the strike.
