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Milestones: New Haven Symphony Orchestra
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Business New Haven
11/24/2003
By: Richard Rangoon
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New Haven Symphony Orchestra
70 Audubon St. New Haven, CT 06510
Tel: Administration (203) 865-0831
Tel: Box Office 203-562-5666
Fax: 203-789-8907
Web site: newhavensymphony.org
Ownership: 501c(3) non-profit
Milestone: 110 years
The New Haven Symphony Orchestra is the fourth oldest symphony in the country. And that's a distinction Executive Director Michael MacLeod is quite proud of.
In its long history, the orchestra has expanded to meet the demands of a broader audience. In MacLeod's office is a 1901 photograph of about 45 musicians who then comprised the NHSO. Today, the orchestra has 70 musicians.
Actually, the construction of Yale's Woolsey Hall precipitated the orchestra's expansion, MacLeod explains. Now about a century old, Woolsey is the orchestra's venue for its symphony series. The Shubert Performing Arts Center showcases another side of the NHSO and its repertoire. "I think 110 years ago they were playing only classical music, but now, not only do we do a symphony series, but we do a pops series," MacLeod explains.
"The Shubert is the birthplace of musicals such as Oklahoma!, The Sound of Music, South Pacific, My Fair Lady - which were all composed in the 1940s and 50s," MacLeod says. The orchestra has performing such music since then.
"I would suggest that 100 years ago the orchestra did not really care too much about the community - it just played its music and it knew that people would fill the hall," MacLeod explains. But today the orchestra pays close attention to the tastes of the community and reaches out to address its changing demographics. For example, next January 15 the orchestra is putting on a Martin Luther King Jr. concert to celebrate the civil rights leader's 75th anniversary, according to MacLeod.
"The most popular concerts we do are those in Edgerton Park," MacLeod says, "outdoor [summer] concerts that people can bring a picnic to, bring a couple of bottles of wine to, and hum along to the music."
It's a winning formula. Today the NHSO performs before some 100,000 people each year. Even so, before there was competition from CDs, DVDs, television and the Internet, audiences were even larger, MacLeod recounts. "In the old days - 30, 40, 50 years ago - we used to play in the Yale Bowl to up to 35,000 people for one pops concert."
MacLeod notes that while other orchestras in mid-sized cities across the country may be curtailing operations, the NHSO is selling more tickets, more sponsorships and more advertising than in recent years, MacLeod says. The ensemble is funded mainly by box office sales, followed by individual contributions from its annual fund, then sponsorship, then trusts and funds.
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