News Release
The Cleveland Orchestra posts record sales
for two-week Holiday Festival
Release date: December 20, 2010
The Cleveland Orchestra is posting record sales for its two-week Holiday Festival, with total sales of over $1.1 million to date for 13 concerts (from December 8-22). The previous high was $1.0 million for 13 concerts in 2007.
This year’s Holiday Festival consisted of nine Christmas concerts by The Cleveland Orchestra, a holiday movie program, a performance by Dave Brubeck with the Orchestra, and presentations of the Vienna Boys Choir and Burning River Brass. (Tickets are still available for Burning River Brass on December 22.) In 2007, the Holiday Festival consisted of nine Christmas concerts, two performances of Handel’s Messiah and two performances by Burning River Brass, also for a total of 13 concerts.
“We are seeing strong positive results from diversifying our programming,” said Executive Director Gary Hanson. “We expect continued growth as we further broaden our range of presentations in Northeast Ohio. We are changing to become more relevant to more people, while maintaining our commitment to excellence.”
Beginning with the 2009-10 season, The Cleveland Orchestra started offering a wider variety of programming in Severance Hall, providing added choices for concert start times, program lengths and content, and more diverse styles of music through programs such as Fridays@7, Musically Speaking, and the Celebrity Series.
Print-at-home tickets have accounted for 25 percent of the Holiday Festival sales, with nearly 48 percent of tickets purchased online.
Ross Binnie, Chief Marketing Officer of The Cleveland Orchestra, said, “We are benefiting from our new website, which enables patrons to print their own tickets at home. Clearly, our customers love the convenience of this service.” Binnie added, “We are very happy to see so many new faces at Severance Hall. Almost 10 percent of the people who attended in December were here for the first time. That’s more than 2,000 new people, and we hope they come back soon.”
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Press Contacts
Jennifer Schlosser, (216) 231-7518; Email: jschlosser@clevelandorchestra.com
Ana Papakhian, Office: (216) 231-7476; Cell phone: (216) 370-2595; Email: anap@clevelandorchestra.com
