St. Paul Chamber Orchestra breaks attendance record

The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra had record attendance during its past season, it announced Wednesday evening at its annual meeting.

The orchestra also balanced its budget of close to $10 million and ended the season with a surplus of almost $350,000. This allowed the SPCO to retire its accumulated debt left over from the recession, and to begin building a rainy day fund.

Nearly 116,000 people attended 140 concerts last season, up 5 percent from the previous year.

In addition to celebrating the season's artistic success, which included a Grammy nomination, orchestra leaders were particularly happy to point to the quadrupling of the number of young people who attended concerts, bringing the total to 8,000.

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