01
Share the live experience
Live orchestral music brings an audience together in a way no recording can. Your gift keeps it accessible — and keeps the room full.
Support the Symphony
Your ticket covers the music. Your gift covers everything else.
Did you ever stop to think about the value of a Cape Ann Symphony ticket? Artistically, the value is hard to measure — perhaps even priceless. In hard dollar terms, your seat is worth around $150 a year to maintain. To keep tickets affordable, we depend on sponsors, grants, advertisers, and donors like you.
The math behind a season
A typical concert costs $20,000–$25,000 to produce.
Box-office revenue covers less than a third of that. Everything else — musician pay, hall rental, music rights, the Youth Initiative, the office that books it all — has to be raised. That's where you come in.
~30%
Box office
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Ticket salesLess than ⅓ of the cost of a concert
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Donations & sponsorshipsIndividuals, corporate sponsors, foundations
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Grants & advertisingMass Cultural Council, program book, etc.
Back to the music
Small example: switching from mailed paper tickets to digital saves the Symphony about $2,000 a year in postage, printing, and processing — money that goes straight to the orchestra rather than the post office. Patrons still get a paper ticket on request; the default just moved to email, Apple Wallet, or Google Pay. Keeping concerts accessible for Cape Ann is a long-standing promise — this is one of the small ways we keep it.
Why give
Four reasons to support the Cape Ann Symphony.
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Keep symphonic music local
Without the Cape Ann Symphony there is no professional orchestra on the North Shore. Your gift is the difference between a season here and a drive into Boston.
03
Music in our schools
Each year the Youth Initiative puts orchestral musicians in front of 4th- and 5th-graders across Cape Ann — for many, their first encounter with classical music.
04
Strengthen the cultural fabric
A regional orchestra is a public good — it employs musicians, educates children, and gives Cape Ann a stage of its own.
Ways to give
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Four paths to support — pick the one that fits.
Annual Fund
Make a gift, any amount
Unrestricted giving that keeps the lights on, the musicians paid, and ticket prices affordable. The single most useful thing you can do.
Artistic Sponsorships
Sponsor a chair
Underwrite a specific position in the orchestra — from the music director to a single flute or cello. One-, three-, and five-year terms available.
Planned Giving
Leave a legacy
Bequests, charitable IRA rollovers, appreciated securities, memorial gifts. The long view — how the Symphony stays here for the next seventy-five years.
Corporate
Sponsor a concert
Concert sponsorships, co-sponsorships, and program-book advertising. Reach 5,000 program-book readers across a full season.
Note
Any gift can be restricted — earmarked for a specific purpose, like the Youth Initiative or the Endowment — or unrestricted, available for the Symphony's general use. Unrestricted gifts give us the most flexibility year over year.
Talk to us about giving
For larger gifts, planned giving, or anything you'd like to talk through.
The Cape Ann Symphony Association is a 501(c)(3) non-profit (EIN 04-6191403). All gifts are tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law.