Top 20 orchestras in the U.S. by revenue

I’ve been curious about the financials behind a big orchestra for a while now. The amount of requests for donations that I get from my city’s orchestras seems to be disconnected from the prices that they charge for their tickets. After looking into their financials, I realized I was wrong.

Most orchestras are organized as non-profits, and therefore have to publicly publish their financial results in form 990. Anyone can access this and that’s what I did, creating this video in the process:

So for the 2017/2018, these are the top 20 orchestras in the U.S.:

Top 20 U.S. Orchestras by Revenue in 2017/2018

1. Los Angeles Philharmonic: $187M
2. Philadelphia Orchestra: $99M
3. Boston Symphony Orchestra: $96M
4. San Francisco Symphony Orchestra: $94M
5. New York Philharmonic: $86M
6. Chicago Symphony Orchestra: $82M
7. Cleveland Orchestra: $62M
8. Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra: $43M
9. Detroit Symphony Orchestra: $41M
10. Minnesota Orchestra: $37M
11. Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra: $37M
12. Dallas Symphony Orchestra: $35M
13. Seattle Symphony Orchestra: $33M
14. Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra: $32M
15. Houston Symphony Orchestra: $30M
16. San Diego Symphony Orchestra: $26M
17. Baltimore Symphony Orchestra: $23M
18. Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra: $19M
19. Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra: $15M
20. New Jersey Symphony Orchestra: $13M

You can see a clear focus in the East Coast (6) and the Midwest (7), with some in the West Coast (3) and the South (2).

Notable omissions from the data set are:

• Met Opera — since they don’t focus on orchestral music
• Atlanta Symphony — they are part of the Woodruff Arts Center that also doesn’t focus on orchestral music
• National Symphony Orchestra in Washington D.C. — since they are a part of the Kennedy Arts Center, which also doesn’t focus on orchestral music

In terms of the Metro areas that those Orchestras serve, they represent 55% of the population and 64% of the GDP.

Out of the top 20 metro areas by GPD, only 5 don’t have an orchestra in the Top 20: Washington D.C. (it has the National Symphony Orchestra), Atlanta (it has the Atlanta Symphony), Miami, San Jose, Phoenix, Denver and San Bernardino.

Financials

Average revenue, expenses and net income for the top 20 orchestras in the U.S.

Revenue 💵

The average revenue was $54M with the highest being the L.A. Philharmonic at $187 M and the lowest being the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra at $13M.

Expenses 💸

The average orchestra spent $49M with the L.A. Philharmonic spending $159M and the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra spending $13M.

Net income 💰

On average, orchestras were positive at $5M, a 9% revenue/expenses. The Philadelphia Orchestra saw the highest net income at $47M (due to a generous donation) while the Boston Symphony Orchestra had the worse results of the group at -$14M.

Ticket revenue 🎫

on average, these orchestras made $18M out of tickets, which represented 34% of their revenues. The LA Philharmonic had the best ratio, with 50% of their revenues coming through tickets. Honorable mentions are the Seattle Symphony Orchestra at 48%, the Boston Symphony Orchestra at 42% and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at 38%.

Salaries 🧍

The average orchestra on this group spent $26M in salaries, which represents 53% of the expenses. Salaries are 140% of ticket revenue, which tells us that orchestras do need donations.

Let me know what you think and don’t forget to check my video!

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