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Burgeoning Subs numbers - a surprising update

Orchestra Wellington finishes our 2015 season this week, with a performance of Tchaikovsy’s 6th Symphony and the world premiere of Karlo Margetic’s new piano concerto, “Melting Furniture”. We also take the opportunity to launch our 2016 brochure.  I thought I would update the subscription figures for next year, before the content of the 2016 season is revealed.


This year, Orchestra Wellington has taken the radical step of initially launching our next season without giving any information, except for date, time, venue and price. The initial launch offered only full subscriptions to all concerts. This approach tests the faith our audience puts in the choices we make. It is also an indication of the support the orchestra has in the wider community. Finally, it offers insight into what motivates people to purchase tickets. At the end of this initial launch, the orchestra actually increased its number of subscribers over the 2015 season! 


For our current season, we finished with a total of 1013 subscribers, across all subscription options (i.e., 3,4,5 or 6 concert options), with the vast majority (975) purchasing the full 6 concert option, due to the cost savings, which I have detailed in an earlier blog. By the end of the initial launch on 6 November we had sold 1011 full subscriptions –  an increase of 3.9% – without revealing any artistic information!


The second phase of the season launch began on 7 November and will last until Saturday night (the 5th of December). Please read the announcement here. For this launch, we revealed only the names of the soloists, and the concerts in which they would be performing. We also raised the price of our subscription. As of today, we have sold an additional 47 full subscriptions. This puts the orchestra in the position that we have now sold an additional 4.4% over all subscription types and 8.5% more full subscriptions than for the 2015 season. This is before the 2016 brochure and details of repertoire has even been released!


The final and most exciting phase of our 2016 season launch occurs on Saturday night, when I will announce the complete programme and our brochures will be handed out to our audience. The season has a very strong theme and will hopefully resonate with our audience…


I can’t say what we will be performing, but I will give a few clues, in advance of Saturday’s big reveal! Concert #1 has the greatest ever setting of a drinking song. In the second concert, a question is asked and dinner is served. Our third concert will rock Falco. The fourth programme will be angelic. Rodents will be vanquished in concert #5 and I guarantee that concert #6 will be out of this world…. By the way, none of these clues has anything to do with the unifying theme of our season!


The final phase of our 2016 launch will last until the 31st of March, after which time only individual tickets will be available. I will report on our final subscriber numbers at that time. Furthermore, Ozer Karagedikli, a member of our board and an advisor in the Modelling Team at the Reserve Bank of New Zealand will analyze our final numbers and I am certain that his findings will be of immense interest to the wider arts community, both here and overseas.

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