The Minnesota Orchestra posted a $3.8 million loss in its fiscal year 2024 due largely to the end of pandemic-era grants, the organization announced Wednesday.
Despite the deficit, the orchestra achieved its highest-ever levels of annual fund donations at $10 million and earned revenue at $11.6 million.
Total revenues from the year, which ran from September 2023 to August 2024, amounted to $38.7 million, with total operating expenses of $42.6 million, according to audited results.
“Our financial results tell the story of an organization that is still climbing back from the pandemic and also achieving key mileposts,” said interim president and CEO Brent Assink in a news release. “For the first time since 2020, our contributed revenue totals did not include any support from pandemic-era grants like the Paycheck Protection Program.”
Total net assets ended the year at $185.5 million, compared to the previous year’s $186 million. Total contributions — including annual fund donations, major gifts, Symphony Ball gifts and trust distributions — reached $25.8 million, compared to $32.6 million in the previous year.
Total earned revenue — including revenue from ticket sales, fees, rental opportunities and concession sales — reached an all-time high of $11.6 million, an increase of 22% from the previous year, driven by strong ticket sales and rental activity.
The orchestra offered 143 ticketed and free concerts and events during the 2023-24 season for in-person audiences. Orchestra Hall was filled to 75 percent paid capacity, up 3%. Nearly 250,000 people attended in-person Minnesota Orchestra concerts and an additional 168,810 watched digitally and on TV.
On the administrative front, president and CEO Michelle Miller Burns left her position to lead the Dallas Symphony. In September, the orchestra announced Brent Assink, former executive director of the San Francisco Symphony, would take her place while a search for a permanent successor is underway.
Artistic highlights from the year include:
• The arrival of Thomas Søndergård as the Minnesota Orchestra’s new music director, who became the 11th artistic leader in the orchestra’s history. Over two weeks and six programs, Søndergård conducted works by Auberbach, Barber, Debussy, Ravel, Strauss and Mozart.
• The Minnesota premiere of composer Billy Child’s Diaspora, a new saxophone concerto based on the poetry of three Black poets chronicling Black life in America. Conducted by Ruth Reinhardt, the work featured saxophone virtuoso Steven Banks in his Minnesota Orchestra debut.
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• The launch of its Educator Side by Side experience, with 54 music educators from 37 cities around the state joining Søndergård and the orchestra onstage for two rehearsals and two concerts.
• Young People’s Concerts that brought 28,242 students from 240 schools across the state to experience classical music at Orchestra Hall. An additional 7,800 young people attended concerts for free with paying adults as part of the Hall Pass program.
• A fresh Summer at Orchestra Hall season exploring music of the 1920s and launching the celebration of Orchestra Hall’s 50th anniversary, all curated by pianist and creative partner Jon Kimura Parker.
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