Big ticket sales for Seattle Symphony, but deficit remains. Why?

The Seattle Symphony reports that nearly $11 million in concert tickets for the current season have been sold between September and March, surpassing the total ticket revenues for each of the last two seasons.

Still, the Symphony projects that those strong sales won't do enough to balance this year's books. The Sympony will add to a deficit that has been with the organization since the 2001-02 season.

With three months remaining until the end of the season, revenue from the sale of tickets for the 2006-07 season is currently on track to break the all-time sales record of $11,169,090, set in the 2003-04 centennial season. Orchestra management credits a "20 for $20" sales program in March, as well as record-breaking holiday sales last December, for much of the ticket income.

And the deficit? The Symphony is projecting its largest-ever season deficit for the fiscal year 2006-07: $2.3 million. Added to last year's shortfall of $2.15 million and an existing deficit, this season's red ink would bring the orchestra's accumulated deficit to $5.5 million.

Among many contributing factors: a three-year, $5 million gift from the Charles Simonyi Fund for the Arts and Sciences has run out (the Simonyi Fund gave the orchestra $2 million for 2003-04 and also for 2004-05, and last year gave $1 million). Other donors have not stepped forward with equivalent largesse. And turnover in the top administrative spot (new executive director Tom Philion arrived in early April) also may have affected funding.

In other orchestra news: The Seattle Symphony has been nominated for a regional Emmy Award for its first self-produced TV show, the two-hour special "Seattle Symphony From Benaroya Hall." The high-definition program featured Gerard Schwarz and the orchestra at Benaroya Hall in Shostakovich's Symphony No. 8 in C minor; Bruch's Violin Concerto No. 1 in G minor (with violinist Julian Rachlin); and Sibelius' "Lemminkäinen's Return."

Nominated in the "special event coverage" category by the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS) Northwest Chapter, the show was produced by John Forsen, directed by Jim Angelo and edited by John Edwards, and was first broadcast on KCTS (Channel 9) last September.

The 44th Annual Northwest Regional Emmy Awards will be presented on June 2.

The Symphony has also announced a new partnership with the Seattle Young Artists Festival, giving top middle- and high-school musicians a chance to perform a concerto with a major orchestra.

Winners and alternates from the festival's Concerto Division competition will be eligible to audition to perform with the Seattle Symphony in concerts designed for young audiences. One Young Artists winner, high-school pianist Rozalyn Chok of West Vancouver, B.C., is already scheduled to perform Richard Strauss' "Burleske" with the orchestra May 8 as part of the "Meet the Beat" series for middle-school students.

Melinda Bargreen: mbargreen@seattletimes.com