If as I say, the assets of the orchestra are mainly the musicians, the answer to the question

"Does the symphony make more money if the musicians play better?"

should be yes. Is that true? Opinions?

Do organizations see a correlation between quality of performance and revenue?

The answer is yes and no. I feel that a good group is able to peform more difficult music and could maybe bring in more patrons if, for example, you were playing a rarely done Mahler symphony or Beethoven 9. However, most of our patrons probably would not be able to discern between a good performance and a great one.

My feeling has always been that we need to have someone from the newspaper critique our performances. There should be a review of each performance the day after. Not only would it keep us at our best, but it would do wonders for publicity.

So I guess to answer your question, yes there is a correlation. If the symphony plays better AND somebody with influence in the media recognizes that fact, then the symphony COULD make more money. It reminds me of the opposing view which goes "if you always do what you've always done, then you'll always get what you've always had."

John