The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra Society

Organization Summary:Renowned for its artistic excellence, remarkable versatility of musical styles and adventurous programming, The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra is widely regarded as one of the finest chamber orchestras in the world. The SPCO is primarily an unconducted ensemble that performs a broad range of repertoire from Baroque to new music and works in close collaboration with a dynamic roster of Artistic Partners. The 2022.23 Season featured a roster of Artistic Partners consisting of British Baroque specialists Jonathan Cohen and Richard Egarr, American composer and musical commentator Rob Kapilow, South African cellist Abel Selaocoe and German violist Tabea Zimmermann. (Continued on Sch. O)The virtuoso musicians of the SPCO present more than 100 concerts in the Twin Cities each year. The orchestra's free online Concert Library offers both live and on-demand videos of concerts that can be viewed anytime, completely free of charge. Through its partnership with YourClassical Minnesota Public Radio and American Public Media, the SPCO is regularly heard on public radio programs that reach nearly 850,000 listeners each week on over 250 stations. Additionally, the SPCO has released 68 recordings, including its recent critically acclaimed album of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Piano Concertos with former Artistic Partner Jeremy Denk and the 2018 Grammy Award-winning recording of Franz Schubert's Death and the Maiden with violinist and former Artistic Partner Patricia Kopatchinskaja. In addition to its programs in the Twin Cities, the orchestra also tours nationally and internationally, including recent engagements in Europe and New York City, and prestigious residencies at the 2021 and 2022 Bravo! Vail Music Festival with violinists Joshua Bell and Stefan Jackiw, bassist Xavier Foley, and pianist and Bravo! Vail Artistic Director Anne-Marie McDermott.The SPCO is deeply committed to expanding the orchestral repertoire, commissioning more than 160 new works throughout its 64-year history and receiving 17 ASCAP awards for adventurous programming. In a divergence from the industry standard of commissioning individual works from composers, the SPCO's new Sandbox Composer Residency program invites composers to experiment freely across a variety of new works created in collaboration with the musicians of the SPCO. This alternative residency model will allow composers to workshop new pieces, experiment and revise, take risks, develop relationships with SPCO musicians and engage with SPCO audiences.The SPCO is nationally recognized for its commitment to broad community accessibility and inclusion, along with its innovative audience engagement efforts. Regular subscription series are performed in a variety of different venues across the Twin Cities metropolitan area each season, a unique commitment to geographic accessibility for a major orchestra. The SPCO offers the most affordable ticket prices of any professional orchestra in the United States, with over 50 percent of tickets available for $15 or less, and has expanded accessibility even further by offering free tickets for children and students as a part of the New Generation Initiative. The orchestra also offers an innovative ticket membership model in which members pay $9 per month to attend unlimited concerts, with a $5 per month concert membership option for members of club2030, the orchestra's program for audience members in their 20s and 30s. The SPCO is a proud member of the Arts Partnership, a strategic alliance of four performing arts organizations - Minnesota Opera, the Ordway, the SPCO and Schubert Club - that ensures equitable sharing and effective care of the Ordway Center as a vital cultural asset in the Twin Cities.MISSION OF THE SAINT PAUL CHAMBER ORCHESTRAOur mission is to sustain a world-class chamber orchestra at the highest standards of artistic excellence that enriches the Twin Cities community by sharing dynamic, distinctive and engaging performances. We are actively committed to accessibility and intentional inclusivity in all aspects of our work and continually strive to provide all people in our community with opportunities to connect with the music we perform. SHARING MUSIC AND SERVING THE TWIN CITIES COMMUNITYAfter the 2020.21 season where the orchestra was not able to perform for in-person audiences due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the SPCO welcomed live audiences back to performances with social distancing and 50% capacity limits at the Ordway Concert Hall in September 2021 and at its Neighborhood Series venues in March 2022. The 2022.23 season saw a complete return to performances in the orchestra's full range of venues, including the Ordway Concert Hall and the SPCO's many Neighborhood Series venues.Audiences have nearly doubled in size, growing from 35,559 in the 2021.22 season to 70,895 in the 2022.23 season. While these numbers represent a significant increase in live audience attendance since the beginning of the pandemic, they also mark a 30% audience decrease since the 2018.19 season, which was the SPCO's last full season before the pandemic. A contributing factor to decreased attendance is the loss in subscribers, which made up 45% of pre-pandemic audiences and have decreased by 39% since the 2018.19 season.The SPCO's commitment to accessible pricing continued through the 2022.23 season with 20,673 tickets being sold for $15 or less. On top of that, 12,920 tickets were distributed free of charge, of which over 60% were to children and students as part of the SPCO's New Generation Initiative. Another pillar of the SPCO's commitment to accessibility is the $9/month recurring Concert Membership program which ended the season with 1,488 Concert Members and 11,819 seats reserved throughout the season. CONTINUED GROWTH AND COMMITMENT TO EXPANDING ACCESS TO THE CONCERT LIBRARY, INCLUDING SIMULCASTS FOR ORDWAY INSIDE OUTChanges in audience members' lifestyles and habits through the pandemic reinforced the importance of online streaming as essential to the SPCO's mission to serve its community by expanding access to its performances. During the 2022.23 season, the SPCO streamed five concerts live from the Ordway Concert Hall and added 27 new pieces to its free on-demand Concert Library. Throughout the season, the Concert Library received 92,318 visits from Minnesota and 316,657 visits worldwide.Through a new partnership with Twin Cities Public Television (TPT), SPCO concerts originally produced for the Concert Library were watched by an estimated 50,000 households across the state on TPT and other Minnesota Public Television Association stations. Minnesota Public Radio's 55th season of SPCO radio broadcasts included four live broadcasts and the recording of dozens of other concerts for the weekly SPCO Spotlight program.In September 2022, the Arts Partnership - the nonprofit organization consisting of Minnesota Opera, the Ordway, The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra and Schubert Club - announced the pilot season of Ordway Inside Out. This outdoor event series in Rice Park was first launched in FY23 as an Arts Partnership initiative that utilizes digital technology to dramatically increase access to artistic programming in Saint Paul. To date, the SPCO has simulcast two of its concerts being performed in the Ordway Concert Hall to an audience across the street, where community members gathered to watch the concert for free on a giant 23' x 13' video wall. The first stream in Rice Park, which featured an SPCO performance with guest pianist Conrad Tao, drew over 150 people, and the Partnership aimed to increase that number with a four-concert expansion in 2023 that included one performance of each of its member organizations. For its second event with Ordway Inside Out, the SPCO simulcast its 2022.23 season finale with guest conductor Gbor Takcs-Nagy. The June event drew 300 attendees in Rice Park, a 200% increase from the first livestream in October 2022. EXPRESS CONCERTSAfter a season of presenting concerts without intermission as a pandemic safety measure in 2021.22, the SPCO resumed full-length concerts with intermission while also offering several weeks of Express Concerts featuring the same amount of music without the intermission. As a way to reduce potential exposure to new and evolving virus variants during the pandemic, Express Concerts were first created to remove intermissions when audience members would typically gather for refreshments between the two halves of a concert. Though born of a commitment to audience, musician and staff safety, this new concert format offers an alternative way for audiences to experience SPCO performances. Audience feedback was overwhelmingly positive regarding the reduced concert time format, which offer many a more accessible way to attend:"We like the format of no intermission and a running time that is reasonable."