Record audiences and contributions: 400,000 greater Sacramentans reached; $10 million in gifts and sponsorships made
Sacramento, CA, June 30, 2023: A decade after the merger of Sacramento’s orchestra and opera company and eight years after the eventual triumphant return to concerts and operas, the Sacramento Philharmonic & Opera (SP&O) completed its 2022-23 season with a chorus of unprecedented achievements. Fighting a national headwind emanating from the pandemic, which continues to stymy performing arts organizations across the nation, SP&O has now performed for a record 400,000 greater Sacramentans through orchestra, opera, pops, grade school, pop-up, and civic partnership concerts and events since 2015, including three sold-out performances at the SAFE Credit Union Performing Arts Center (SAFE PAC) this season alone.
The key to the SP&O’s triumphant return and fiscal stability has been a reliable and growing subscription base coupled with the Sacramento Region’s philanthropic generosity. Subscription revenue increased nearly 45% over a year ago, with the number of subscribers crossing 1,000 for the first time since before the pandemic. And, since 2015, over $10 million in gifts and sponsorships have been made to the Sacramento Philharmonic & Opera and the Sacramento Philharmonic & Opera Foundation.
A key tenet of the merger between the Sacramento Philharmonic and the Sacramento Opera, the new Company has presented six operas in the past 8 years for a combined audience exceeding 12,000, featuring nationally celebrated artists and directors earning critical and audience acclaim.
“For everyone who works on behalf of the Sacramento Philharmonic and Opera, it is a tremendous privilege to be able to serve Sacramento with great music,” exalts Giuliano Kornberg, the SP&O’s Executive Director. “Selling hundreds of thousands of tickets to orchestral, operatic, and pops performances in eight years was once viewed as a pipe dream. Now, it’s the new baseline for our ambitions — a foundation from which we will continue to serve and partner with audiences across the Region.”
In addition to those attending orchestral and opera presentations, the SP&O has reached 25,000 3rd-5th grade students in Title 1 Schools through music education offerings including full orchestra “Link Up” concerts in partnership with Carnegie Hall. As one of the largest and most frequent Sacramento-based tenants of the SAFE PAC and the predecessor Community Center Theater, in eight years the Sacramento Philharmonic & Opera has held more than 250 concert events and rehearsals at the SAFE PAC, engaging more than 650 greater Sacramento classical musicians and chorus members and bringing to Sacramento some 160 internationally celebrated guest artists and conductors.
“While our principal performing venue is the SAFE Credit Union Performing Arts Center, our commitment to the greater Sacramento Region extends into every corner of our region,” observes John Shirey, retired Sacramento City Manager and the Sacramento Philharmonic & Opera’s Board President. “In recent years, we have offered 175 pop-up concerts, and our remarkable musicians have performed for some quarter-million individuals outside the SAFE PAC at multiple events including Run to Feed the Hungry, a 4th of July performance at Sutter Health Park, and Andrea Bocelli at the Golden 1 Center. It’s an incredible story of resilience and service to our Region.”
SP&O’s 2023-24 season is on sale, with subscription sales already outpacing this year’s strong results. Programs range from Dvořák’s legendary Symphony No. 9, “From the New World,” to Johann Strauss’ hysterical opera, Die Fledermaus, to Ravel’s arrangement of Mussorgsky’s epoch Pictures at an Exhibition. Subscriptions are available at www.sacphilopera.org; single tickets go on sale in August.
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Sacramento Philharmonic & Opera
With its mission to build community, inspire a love of the performing arts, and enrich lives through music, the Sacramento Philharmonic & Opera is the collaborative leader in the cultural growth of the Greater Sacramento Region, having reclaimed its place as one of the region’s leading performing arts organizations. Since its triumphant return in 2015, the SP&O has made tremendous artistic, community, and fiscal strides through a business model that has solidly moved from one of instability to one of stability.
Today, the SP&O serves as a vibrant cultural community asset – one that is shaped by Sacramento, whose offerings are uniquely of Sacramento, and whose vision for the future is designed for Sacramento. The SP&O continues its stellar concerts, operas, and community engagement programs that bring the passion of classical music to the stage, schools, hospitals, shelters, and more. We look forward to continually benefiting this region through our work and expanding our impact of how we can serve this growing, thriving community.