Price hike scaled back for BSO subscribers
Two weeks after raising some ticket prices by as much as 80 percent, the Boston Symphony Orchestra said that it made a mistake and will scale back the increase for the 1,400 subscribers most affected by it.
The higher prices printed on the tickets won't go down. But subscribers hit the hardest will receive rebates to keep their tickets from going up more than 15 percent.
"It's very important to us to listen to subscribers, and they have spoken loud and clear," said Kim Noltemy, the BSO's director of sales and marketing. "We feel we need to respond some way and make them feel good about the institution that they love so dearly."
After announcing the price hikes, the BSO said it received more than 200 letters and calls and 35 cancellations. What angered some longtime subscribers was the BSO's decision to "rescale" prices at Symphony Hall, a process symphony officials say takes place every 10 to 15 years. The rescaling raised the average ticket price by 15 percent, more than the typical 3.5 to 4 percent annual increase.
But some symphony loyalists were most upset by a decision to increase some seats by much more. Ticket prices in the second balcony, which the symphony says have been dramatically underpriced, were raised by as much as 80 percent.
Hence the cancellations, protest calls, and, in the case of subscriber Steve Gilbert, the decision to purchase the Internet domain bostonsymphonyoutrage.com.
"Our mistake was not phasing it in over a longer period of time," said Mark Volpe, the BSO's managing director. "We feel we have the right to price seats according to demand, and yet for some people that's a major burden, and we're trying to rectify that."
Volpe said several factors went into the ticket increases. The BSO, he says, generally charges less than other orchestras its size. The BSO is producing an expensive program next year, including Mahler's Eighth Symphony and Wagner's opera "The Flying Dutchman." And there are added costs to the BSO through increases in the players' contract and the arrival of music director James Levine.
The BSO typically brings in $11 million a season through ticket sales in the 2,625-seat hall. It had hoped to increase that by about $1 million. BSO officials would not say how much less than that they will bring in with the discount, which applies to 332 seats in the second balcony, 41 in the first, and 141 floor seats.
Noltemy said the BSO will contact subscribers receiving the rebate. One subscriber who has already received a personal response is Gilbert, 54, who inherited a pair of seats -- CC22 and 23 in the orchestra -- that his parents first purchased in 1957. His Saturday series tickets -- for six concerts -- had been set to jump from $57 to $83 each. He's pleased to see the BSO has responded to complaints and will increase his ticket prices by 15 percent instead. But he's keeping his domain.
"If in fact the orchestra makes the price reduction across the board, so that no one's subscription goes up more than 15 percent, then there is no need for me to put it up on the website," said Gilbert. "However, the website is there, the manifesto is written, and if we find the BSO is trying to weasel on this, it goes up."
Geoff Edgers can be reached at gedgers@globe.com.
