The Orchestra has made great strides in the community and artistic quality of the institution. Much has changed since the previous reviewer reviewed the orchestra on October 2, 2011. There is far greater stability financially. Management leadership has been completely overhauled since then. The musicians in the orchestra and management have a very cooperative team working environment. The orchestra has also stepped up it's presence in the community. I'm proud to be part of this organizations serving many different roles.
I feel very dismayed by the previous posters reviewed as many of the issues at concerts are outside of the orchestras jurisdiction. The performance facility is run by the city of Denver as well as the concessions. It's very disheartening to know of so many patron issues with the concert experience that are not under the organizations jurisdiction. However, what the organization can control is the artistic quality and concert experience as well as its presence in the community.
Review from Guidestar
Putting your head in the sand, like an ostrich, is not the way to save a failing company, and the CSO regrettably is heading downhill, as shown by the IRS Form 1099s. As in many "self-help" programs, you must first acknowledge the problem before you can fix it. The CSO would help itself considerably if it recognized that its problem is in keeping patrons to bolster revenue, rather than reducing the salaries of musicians to cut costs. It should take simple steps to attract a younger audience by re-instating the cheap seats and half price tickets for children.
The City should do its bit by re-instating 4 hour evening parking meters, and allowing parking back on 14th Street.
Doubling the cost of the lowest price tickets, (for a family), as the CSO did between 2008 and 2009, and preventing on-street parking for evening concerts, as the City did by limiting evening parking meters to 2 hours, has surely played a major part in the 40% revenue decline over 2 years. Making concert going more expensive and inconvenient is not the way to encourage patronage, especially of young people with young children.
I find it counter-intuitive that a City which wants to be "world class" does everything in its power to prevent people from using their cars to come downtown. Its latest act is to remove more than 100 parking meters from the convention center area. This makes 2 hour visits to the city now cost $12 and up (to park in a garage) vs $2 on a meter.
Unless and until the orchestra management recognizes that symphony concert tickets are extremely price sensitive, and the City Council acknowledges that many people will NOT use public transport if they are prevented from using their cars, the orchestra will have a very difficult job succeeding. At that point, Denver will have lost one of its best cultural assets, as well as about $2 million in seat taxes and parking revenue.
Are Denver City Councilors willing to accept so much short term revenue loss from out-of-towners, and long term damage to our reputation, because they don't like cars parked on the street?
Review from CharityNavigator