An elite orchestra, for all

By Jon Limbacher, President and Managing Director of The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra

This piece was originally published in The Minnesota Star Tribune on August 10, 2025.

In the coming months, I will retire as president of The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra after almost 10 years. As I reflect upon my tenure, I am deeply proud of this organization and what it represents, particularly its unshakable commitment to both artistic excellence and accessibility. By embracing these principles, we provide the most value to our community and thereby ensure the sustainability of our organization.

Twenty years ago this spring, our world-class, Grammy Award-winning orchestra announced that it was significantly reducing ticket prices for its Neighborhood Series concerts across the Twin Cities. The rationale for our decision was a desire to serve more people in our community. As we had hoped, we saw an immediate and dramatic increase in audience attendance. We later extended the initiative to our concerts at the Ordway Center for the Performing Arts, and the results were similar.

Today, over 50% of our tickets are available for $16. Anyone in our community can purchase a Concert Membership for $10 per month and attend as many concerts as they like at no additional charge. In 2017 we made it free for children and students of all ages to attend our performances. Since then, over 46,000 young people have come to our concerts. We know unequivocally that our commitment to affordable prices has made it possible for more people to attend more often. We hear it from audience members at concerts, we read it in post-concert surveys, and we see it in larger, younger and more diverse audiences.

Our commitment to accessible ticket prices has also made our organization stronger financially. Affordable ticket prices have allowed us to garner consistently larger audiences while allowing us to reduce marketing expenses. As an organization that depends on philanthropy for financial viability, serving a larger and broader audience has significantly enhanced our case for support. What we have learned over the last 20 years is that doing the right thing is also doing the smart thing.

We believe that our almost 66-year-old world-class orchestra belongs to our community, and that’s reflected in our vision to be a great orchestra for everyone. The transformative power and beauty of the music we perform should not be limited to a select few. You can have an elite orchestra without being elitist.