What can the first half of the season, and particularly the holiday period, tell us about the health of orchestras in North America right now?
In our recent Orchestra Benchmark webinar, co-hosted with the League of American Orchestras, we analyzed real-time data from participating U.S. orchestras to understand trends in single tickets, holiday programming, subscriptions, and donor behavior.
While the headlines may feel steady, the story underneath is more nuanced. Watch back the webinar below, or scroll down for our key takeaways.
Across single tickets, overall revenue has remained relatively flat year-over-year (adjusted for inflation). That’s encouraging in a volatile environment.
But ticket volume is slightly down, and that distinction matters.
Revenue is holding because average price paid has increased modestly above inflation. In other words, pricing discipline is helping offset softer ticket volume. That’s a strength. But it also means volume pressure hasn’t disappeared, it’s just being managed.
The most important metric in the webinar wasn’t revenue. It was average tickets per order.
While the number of single-ticket buying households has remained stable (even slightly up), the average order size continues to decline. That may seem small (a fraction of a ticket per order) but multiplied across thousands of transactions, it has significant impact.
More households. Fewer tickets per purchase.
That subtle behavioral shift creates long-term pressure on halls, frequency, and future subscription pipelines.
The 2025 holiday season had fewer prime selling days and fewer performances overall. Despite that, revenue declines were modest.
Holiday Pops and Messiah programming continues to perform efficiently, often driving stronger per-concert returns than other seasonal programming.
The takeaway isn’t simply “do more Pops.” It’s about intentional programming mix, margin awareness, and understanding how different products contribute differently to both revenue and audience development.
Subscription tickets are up. Revenue is up. But subscriber households dipped slightly compared to last year.
What does that suggest?
Renewals appear strong. Core buyers are committing, and in many cases, purchasing larger packages. But acquisition may be softer than hoped.
Growth is currently being driven by deepening existing relationships rather than expanding the subscriber base. That’s encouraging for loyalty. It raises important questions for pipeline strategy.
Individual giving showed stability, with donor households continuing to grow modestly.
Average gift size fluctuates (often influenced by a small number of large gifts) but relationship volume remains healthy.
As with ticketing, the key story is not just dollars. It’s households. Relationships. Engagement frequency.
Those are the indicators of long-term resilience.
The most important takeaway from the session isn’t any single data point.
It’s this:
Revenue is the outcome. Behavior is the driver. The orchestras best positioned for the year ahead are those paying close attention to the relationships underneath the totals.
The real value of benchmark data comes when it informs decisions. If you’d like to unpack what these insights mean for your strategy, we’d be glad to dig into it with you.