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Detroit Symphony Streams Its Way to Success

Matthew Sedlar on June 12, 2015
A live camera set up at the Max M. Fisher Music Center.
A live camera set up at the Max M. Fisher Music Center.

The Detroit Symphony Orchestra has had its share of problems over the years, including a six-month musicians’ strike between 2010-2011 that according to some nearly destroyed the organization. But these days, the symphony is on the rebound —  so much that its executive director, Paul Hogle, is serving as an advisor to the similarly troubled Sacramento Philharmonic.

How did they do it?

According to an article by Musical America, it was the live streaming.

Anxious traditionalists feared that being able to see and hear concerts at the touch of an app would hurt attendance at Orchestra Hall. But the opposite has happened. “Pre-strike attendance was about 50 percent of capacity,” CEO Anne Parsons says. “Now we have more than 90 percent of the hall sold on a regular basis.”

Read more at Musical America.