News Release
The Cleveland Orchestra establishes
Center for Future Audiences
New Center for Future Audiences will eliminate barriers
to attending Cleveland Orchestra concerts
Center for Future Audiences is the first in a series of
Centers for Excellence being created to transform the institution
Gift of $20 million from the Maltz Family Foundation
initiates $60 million endowment to fully fund Center for Future Audiences
Release Date: October 26, 2010
CLEVELAND - The creation of The Cleveland Orchestra’s new Center for Future Audiences was announced today by Gary Hanson, the Orchestra’s Executive Director. By 2018, when fully funded and operational, the Center will have eliminated the major barriers to accessing the Orchestra’s live concert experience in Northeast Ohio. In making the announcement, Mr. Hanson also named Ross Binnie as the Director of the Center for Future Audiences.
“The creation of the Center for Future Audiences is a major step toward fulfilling our vision to ensure that Cleveland’s Orchestra will be here for the next century, and beyond, for our entire community,” said Mr. Hanson. “Our goal is to have the youngest orchestra audiences in the country by the time of our centennial in 2018. With the establishment of this Center, Ross Binnie will lead the research, development, implementation, and measurement of new programs designed to achieve this ambitious goal.”
Funding for the Center’s activities will be generated by a special endowment fund of $60 million. The lead gift of $20 million toward that goal has been pledged by Cleveland’s Maltz Family Foundation of the Jewish Federation.
“The Maltz Family’s extraordinary generosity is deeply appreciated,” Mr. Hanson said. “The Foundation’s philanthropy is a vote of confidence in the future of the Orchestra and will be an inspiration to others who care deeply about our community.”
“Music is for everyone: it inspires, it uplifts, it transforms,” said Tamar Maltz, vice president of the Maltz Family Foundation. “When our family listens to world-class music by The Cleveland Orchestra at Severance Hall or Blossom Music Center, we ask ourselves, ‘What would Cleveland be without our great Cleveland Orchestra?’ We made this gift to ensure that this music and this Orchestra are here for everyone, forever.”
Milton Maltz, President of the Maltz Family Foundation, said, “As my wife stated, it’s incomprehensible to think of Cleveland losing this Orchestra. This would be equivalent to stopping the heartbeat of this great city. Over the decades there have been many contributors to our Orchestra. It is now this generation’s turn to continue to uphold the tradition. It’s the right thing to do. It’s our responsibility.”
Speaking about the funding for the Center for Future Audiences, Mr. Hanson said, “With this announcement we will begin a campaign to solicit major gifts to fully endow the Center at $60 million. As we are undertaking the endowment effort, we will also seek meaningful start-up funding in the form of cash gifts to enable the Center to implement programs as early as 2011.” He added, “Over the course of the coming year we will announce at least two additional Centers of Excellence with equally transformational missions and similar funding models.”
The work of the Center for Future Audiences will focus on eliminating economic, geographic, and cultural barriers to attending the Orchestra’s performances. Center Director Ross Binnie describes his mission as “taking a new strategic direction where the primary goal is to bring more people to the music, in place of a long-standing approach that pursued revenue growth through higher ticket prices. Over the past year we have introduced several pilot access programs and their success provides the template for our ongoing work.”
The average ticket price to hear the Orchestra in Severance Hall today is more than $50, an increase of more than 300% since the mid-1980s. The Center for Future Audiences will subsidize affordable pricing for everyone and offer free tickets to target audiences, especially to younger people, to create broader access for the Northeast Ohio community. The Center will also implement programs that take music into local communities and adapt concert formats and facilities to welcome audiences who may be unfamiliar with traditional concerts.
Ross Binnie, who began working with The Cleveland Orchestra as Chief Marketing Officer in February 2010, has been named the Director of the Center for Future Audiences. Mr. Binnie served as vice president for sales and services for the Detroit Symphony Orchestra for seven years before coming to The Cleveland Orchestra in February 2010. In Detroit, he was responsible for all new business development and customer service, including the supervision of single-ticket and subscription sales and services, public relations, advertising, and promotions, as well as overseeing two retail stores. Mr. Binnie has also held positions at performing arts venues in London, England, including the Hackney Empire, Open Air, and Her Majesty’s theaters. He teaches music business at Wayne State University. Raised in the United Kingdom, Ross Binnie received his master of business administration degree from the Edwin L. Cox School of Business at Southern Methodist University in Dallas in 1997 and a Bachelor of Arts degree at the University of Texas in Austin.
A number of pilot programs designed to increase access to Cleveland Orchestra concerts began during the 2009-10 season. In the summer of 2009, the Orchestra began offering free tickets to children under 12 at Blossom Music Center. This past summer, more than 9,000 children attended concerts with their families. Discounted tickets have proven successful in attracting new subscribers. The Severance Access program offered 500 discounted, subsidized subscriptions for the first time last season, and all were sold. This season, more than 900 tickets have already been sold through SeverancePass, a new subscription with flexible concert dates. These new initiatives have been partially funded by Forest City Enterprises, Jones Day, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, NACCO Industries, and the William J. and Dorothy K. O’Neill Foundation.
The Cleveland Orchestra
Under the direction of Music Director Franz Welser-Möst, The Cleveland Orchestra has become one of the most sought-after performing ensembles in the world. At its winter home at Severance Hall, at each summer’s Blossom Festival, and on tour around the world, The Cleveland Orchestra sets standards of artistic excellence, creative programming, and community engagement. The Cleveland Orchestra’s educational programs have introduced more than four million Cleveland-area schoolchildren to symphonic music since the Orchestra’s founding in 1918. For more information, please visit clevelandorchestra.com.
The Maltz Family Foundation of the Jewish Federation
The Maltz Family Foundation is a supporting foundation of the Jewish Federation of Cleveland. Created in 1997, the Maltz Family Foundation supports a wide variety of nonprofit charitable organizations working in the arts, health and human services, medical research, education, the environment, and Jewish causes.
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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
