Thursday, August 14, 2008

Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra celebrates banner 2007-08 season

By Pegasus News wire

The Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra Association’s 2007-08 season brought unparalleled artistic and administrative achievements. The organization’s numerous successes range from the packed house at the Orchestra’s Carnegie Hall debut in January to a balanced $12.5 million budget that included a small surplus.

fwso.org

“This has been a banner season for the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra,” said President Ann Koonsman. “The FWSO is very fortunate to have the unparalleled leadership of Board Chairman Mercedes T. Bass and the brilliant artistic leadership of Music Director Miguel Harth-Bedoya. With our top-notch staff and very talented musicians, this organization is able to defy industry trends with strong ticket sales and very generous community support.”

Some of the organization’s 2007-08 season accomplishments include:

• The Mahler Cycle: Part I, the first of a three-year festival, which received rave reviews;

• The Orchestra’s packed Carnegie Hall debut which included the world premiere of Mariel for Cello and Orchestra by world-renowned composer Osvaldo Golijov;

• A sold-out bilingual performance of Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf with stage and screen star John Lithgow in Carnegie Hall’s Family Concert Series;

• Adding $2.2 million to the Millennium Campaign, bringing the endowment fund to $28 million;

• The Painted Violins…Strings Attached fundraiser, which raised $138,000, exceeding all expectations. Thirty-two professional and celebrity artists of regional and national stature took bare wooden violins as their canvases and created strikingly individual and vibrant works. These renowned artists included Scott Gentling, Edwin J. Ackermann and Nancy Lamb as well as celebrities singer-songwriter Larry Gatlin and actress Phyllis Diller, among others.

Fort Worth Symphony Conductor Miguel Harth-Bedoya

• The launch of Caminos del Inka, an exciting new multimedia project created by Music Director Miguel Harth-Bedoya, which will be performed with major orchestras throughout the country;

• Release of the CD Asleep at the Wheel with the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra, an example of the FWSO’s musical diversity and crossover appeal;

• And the release of the CD Live at Carnegie Hall.

“The community was so supportive of our Carnegie Hall concert that we were able to secure full funding through private donations before the Orchestra left for New York,” Koonsman said. “In addition, more than 500 patrons from the Metroplex purchased tickets and traveled to New York to hear our debut. They carried the excitement of that performance home, and as a result ticket sales soared, especially during the second half of the season.”

Ticket sales exceeded expected goals in both the American Airlines Symphonic Series and the Star-Telegram Pops Series. In addition the FWSO introduced Casual Chic Fridays, giving patrons the option of a shorter concert experience—an industry wide trend responding to patron’s increasingly busy lives. After surveying its patrons, the organization also added a “People’s Choice” selection to almost every concert in the symphonic series.

Outside of Bass Performance Hall, the 18th annual Concerts In The Garden summer music festival retained its high attendance, drawing approximately 45,000 people for 19 concerts. The FWSO also added two new corporate sponsors for the annual event, XTO Energy and Frank Kent Motor Company, which donated a Dodge Challenger to be raffled off. These new sponsors joined the FWSO’s existing corporate supporters: Star-Telegram, BNSF Railway and Wells Fargo.

In June, the FWSO announced good news for the 2008-09 season: Park Place Motorcars Fort Worth joined the FWSO as a presenting sponsor for the season at Bass Performance Hall, along with existing sponsors American Airlines, Renaissance Worthington Hotel and Star-Telegram.

“It was an amazing season, with many positive changes,” Koonsman said. “Now we’re turning our attention to 2008-09, and are looking forward to just as many, if not more, milestones.”

Source: FWSO

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