Musicians walk out after London orchestra leaves them unpaid for months
Emergency backup is called to enable London Chamber Orchestra event at Cadogan Hall to go ahead after protest over payment delays
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I got a donation request in the mail for my city's opera. Why would I donate to something I can't afford to go see? Something that wealthy people love but won't donate to save? The tickets go for like $300 each where I live and you can't pay the musicians?
The tickets go for like $300 each
Damn that's a lot. The symphony and ballet in my city are much more reasonable, you can get cheap seats for like $40 and decent seats for $60
and you can't pay the musicians?
This story is about a bank freezing a symphony's accounts. Is that happening where you live too? God help us if people just read this headline and immediately jump to "symphony orchestras are bad"
TLDR: US operas tickets $35-350, symphony tickets $35-200. There are reasonable prices if you're interested.
Classical music is expensive, and ticket sales rarely even cover half of an orchestra's operating budget. The rest comes from wealthy donors. An arts organization asking for donations is standard practice.
Tickets are sold in a wide range of prices depending on the seat. I've done a little digging on ticket price ranges of major US cities that have both operas and orchestras.
Seattle Symphony $35-135 LA Phil $20-190 Dallas Symphony $46-253 Chicago Symphony $49-250 NY Phil $72-180
Seattle Opera $67-399 LA Opera $34-346 Dallas Opera $19-482 Lyric Opera of Chicago $41-297 Metropolitan Opera $47-465
In addition, most orchestras have much cheaper rush tickets or discount codes. If you are interested in classical music but can't afford the tickets look into these options.
When the previous commenter said tickets are $300 I got suspicious. Though opera companies do sell $300 tickets those are near the top of the price range.
Also check out local smaller orchestras, my local one has $10 tickets, with $5 tickets available for students, and it's one of the bigger orchestras in the state
In Glasgow you can see the RSNO for less than £30, I was also surprised that it wasn't all toffs in dinner suits, there were all sorts of people there and casual dress is OK!
Every single US orchesta has some page on their website reassuring newcomers that they don't need to dress formal. Most don't even wear tuxedos on stage anymore.
The assumption that classical music is off-puttingly formal is one that not accurate, at least not anymore.