Consistent with his belief that music and the arts satisfy deep longings within the human spirit, Paul Meecham, president of the 92-year-old Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, wants such satisfaction to be widely available.
“The BSO sees itself as being as inclusive and as accessible as it can be to the broadest possible section of our community,” Meecham said. “We launched an effort a year ago where — through funding from PNC Bank — all of our tickets were $25. Before that they ranged in price from $25 to $78. This year, 72 percent of the hall is still available for $25.”
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As a result, 2007-2008 season ticket sales increased by 20 percent. This season, despite economic conditions that regrettably bankrupted the Baltimore Opera Company, sales are only slightly weaker, Meecham said.
“The city needs to have a cultural institution that can reach out to everybody, and BSO is definitely interested in being involved in all the different communities in the city and the state,” said Catherine McClelland, a longtime BSO subscriber, volunteer and board member, who works for Independent Can Co. in Harford County.
The only major American orchestra to have a woman — Maestra Marin Alsop — as music director, the BSO conducts its civilizing community work through hundreds of concerts at Baltimore’s 2,400-seat Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall and in Montgomery County’s 1,900-seat Music Center at Strathmore.
In 2007-2008, BSO performed 169 concerts. This season — with offerings that will include an 80th-birthday celebration concert for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in January, the music of Brahms, Ravel, and Rachmaninoff, and Slavonic dances — the company will achieve comparable numbers.
The 94-musician, $26.6 million-a-year nonprofit, which has won three Grammy Awards, also deploys a raft of specials and outreach programs to maximize its cultural influence. Discovery concerts, school-visiting, BSO On-the-Go performances, a SuperPops and summer concert series, and an all-black Soulful Symphony special top the list.
But Orchkids may be Meecham’s favorite.
Slated for expansion in 2009, the new after-school program has company musicians teaching music and life skills to 30 first-graders three days a week at West Baltimore’s Harriet Tubman Elementary School.
