WICHITA SYMPHONY SOCIETY

Our Goals are to achieve the following:

• Provide the highest quality orchestra experiences in performance on par with orchestras in bigger cities.

• Offer comprehensive educational and continuing learning opportunities for people of all ages, but with particular emphasis on the youth of our city and region.

• Manage and govern the organization with prudent fiscal responsibility and best practices of contemporary governance.

• Achieve the level of public recognition, respect, and engagement worthy of being a cultural flagship in the City of Wichita.

Centering on our community, the Wichita Symphony has a strategic plan that revolves around four cornerstones. It starts with artistic excellence. We pride ourselves in our level of artistic achievement performing at a level that often exceeds expectations for a regional orchestra. We capitalize on the creative resources of our community. Most of our musicians live locally. Our Music Director, while not a Wichita resident, is a graduate of a nearby college and has deep roots in our region. We invite guest artists who regularly perform on the stages of major, big-city orchestras.

But excellence is not enough. Our second strategic cornerstone supports education about music for people of all ages. We believe
music is a lifelong passion that begins in childhood. We promote this by introducing children to symphonic music at a Young People’s Concert or developing skills on a musical instrument in our Youth Orchestras program. Opportunities for broadening and deepening one’s appreciation and knowledge of music are essential for the continuing education of adults.

With education about music, there follows engagement as the third cornerstone of our strategy. Engagement is as simple as deciding to attend a concert or participate with peers in a youth orchestra ensemble. Taking small ensembles into the community to perform for students or civic organizations broadens engagement with a diverse population. An interactive website blog encourages interaction with a broader community.

As people deepen their levels of engagement through ticket purchases, participation at lectures, events, and educational experiences, we arrive at the fourth cornerstone of strategy, which is financial strength. This cornerstone is where patrons purchase a season ticket to the Symphony and become contributing patrons. For our high school patrons, it may be a commitment to the Youth Symphony throughout their secondary education. Financial strength provides the resources to grow artistic excellence, educational, and engagement opportunities. Hence, the four cornerstones become a cyclical force dependent on the success of each.

As we enact these cornerstones, we seek to deepen, broaden, and diversify our relationships with symphony patrons and the community. The Symphony strives to be an adaptive organization that responds to the changing demographics and artistic desires of the city.

The success of these strategies will lead to civic stature, respect, and recognition throughout the community. A broader and committed patron base will create financial stability, thereby enabling the organizational and community vibrancy that continually builds upon the strategic cornerstones.

Founded in 1944, the Wichita Symphony enjoys over seventy-five years of providing outstanding symphonic and educational experiences to the Wichita region. It is the largest professional orchestra in the State of Kansas and serves the south-central region of the State. Experience and history speak to the capabilities of the organization.

The organization has a healthy balance sheet, an endowment over $6 million, and strong financial oversight by the Board of Directors. Since recovering from the Great Recession, the Symphony has been debt-free for over six years. Net assets of $7.2 million (September 2019) have increased by over 80% since 2012. The Symphony engages an independent Controller who reviews financial activity, prepares easily understood financial statements for the Board, and ensures proper payroll processes. The Symphony contracts with an independent auditor who conducts the annual audit.

Charity Navigator recognizes the financial strength of the organization and the governance transparency of the Board with a coveted four-star rating of the Symphony for the past four years. This the highest rating for any cultural nonprofit in the State of Kansas. The Wichita Symphony is also one of the highest-rated symphony orchestras evaluated by Charity Navigator in the United States.

Thirty-nine community leaders serve as the Board of Directors. The Board works to be inclusive and successfully attracts a diverse contingency. Board participation as donors is 100%. Directors have organized and managed fundraisers and special events. A Women’s Association periodically produces designer showhouses that have contributed over $1.5 million to the Symphony’s resources over the years. The Association also provides over forty volunteers for every day of the Young People’s Concerts. A Parents’ Advisory Committee formed three years ago to support Youth Orchestras activities. Financial and volunteer support, as well as student participation and engagement, increased measurably.

Competitive auditions maintain the orchestra’s professional excellence. The Music Director is an experienced leader who holds top positions at two other orchestras. He has over twenty-five years of experience conducting symphony orchestras. A collaborative relationship with the Wichita State University’s School of Music helps attract top-level faculty and graduate students to the community.

In 2019, the Symphony hired a new concertmaster and assigned the additional title of Partner for Audience Engagement. This innovative relationship will build upon her proven capabilities and mastery of social networking and fundraising.

An experienced administrative leader with over thirty years in managing music and orchestra programs leads a talented, professional staff. The office added a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) database in 2013 that serves both Box Office and patron development needs.

Unique, innovative, and adventurous programming highlighted by frequent community collaborations distinguishes the Wichita Symphony over the past five seasons and demonstrates artistic achievement. Examples include:

• A production of Bartok’s Bluebeard’s Castle (2015) with the acclaimed international bass Samuel Ramey. The Symphony collaborated with Chihuly Studios in Seattle to bring in over 9,000 pounds of blown glass sets. Wichita is one of about a half dozen orchestras in the world to undertake this expensive and stunning visual and musical experience.

• Two collaborations with Music Theatre Wichita to produce Rodgers and Hammerstein Broadway musicals in semi-staged concert versions. We produced Carousel in 2017 and South Pacific in 2019. Both concerts were among the top-selling productions in the Wichita Symphony’s history.
• Astronomer, Dr. José Francisco Salgado, provided films with NASA generated imagery to accompany performances of Holst's’ The Planets (2018) and Ravel’s Daphnis and Chloe Suites (2019). The latter celebrated the 70th anniversary of man’s landing on the moon.
• A performance of Britten’s War Requiem on the day marking the centennial of World War One Armistice. Collaborating exhibits and lectures at the Wichita Art Museum and the Wichita-Sedgwick County Historical Museum added to the significance of the event. (November 2018)
• Performances of all four Rachmaninoff Piano Concertos plus the Rhapsody on a Theme by Paganini with the French pianist Lise de la Salle. Wichita was the only orchestra in the world to undertake this adventurous project with de la Salle over two concerts on a single weekend (February 2019).

The Wichita Symphony Youth Orchestras program offers musical training to about 270 students in grades four through twelve. The three-ensemble program expanded with a Wind Ensemble in 2018 and added a percussion ensemble in 2019. In the spring of 2018, the senior ensemble, the Youth Symphony, made their first-ever “off-campus” trip to Colorado Springs, followed by a weekend where we hosted the Colorado Springs Youth Symphony. In June 2020, the Youth Symphony travels to Chicago for cultural enrichment and performs concerts in Missouri and Iowa along the way.

After adding a full-time staff member for education and community engagement in 2017, the Symphony’s connections and engagement with the community have grown measurably. We reached over 65,000 people during the 2018 – 2019 season, more than double the level of previous outreach, and achieved primarily with small ensembles, lectures, and event representation. The Symphony continues to offer free community concerts for the Holiday season and at Wichita’s Riverfest.

The Symphony continues to diversify its programming. During the 2019 – 2020 season, the Symphony performs music by four women composers, two African Americans on the subscription series, and a Young People’s Concert and Family Concert devoted to the culture of Mexico.