Revenue-to-Expense Is An Ugly Ratio in Baltimore

The Baltimore Symphony is the latest ensemble to be facing down a series of crippling deficits, and eyebrow-raising endowment raids aside, there don’t appear to be any easy solutions. “The symphony’s operating expenses have been more than twice its operating revenue… Paring debt will help expenses only marginally, saving maybe a million or two in annual interest, assuming whomever covered the deficits charged interest. What really matter are demand for the symphony’s product and the cost to produce it, and in these categories symphonic orchestras are working at a disadvantage in the 21st century.”