Celebrating a string a successes, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association has finished in the black for the first time since 2003, posting an $113,000 surplus on its $58 million operating budget.

The association also reported increased ticket sales (up three percent from last year), an 85 percent paid-capacity in tickets sales for the second consecutive year, and surpassing its fundraising goal by four percent, drawing $18.6 million for its Annual Fund from over 13,000 individuals, corporations, foundations and government agencies.

Nearly a third of CSO main series concerts were sold out or exceeded 95% capacity; half reached 87% capacity. The CSO's 2006-07 season included over 230 musical events, including 155 CSO concerts, and a number of new media initiatives and collaborations.

Bernard Haitink and Helen Regenstein Conductor Emeritus Pierre Boulez finished their inaugural seasons as principal conductor and Helen Regenstein Conductor Emeritus, respectively; an in-house record label, CSO Resound, was started; the orchestra returned to radio through the BP Chicago Symphony Orchestra Radio Broadcast Series and offered a free video download of its Beyond the Scores presentation of Bartуk’s The Miraculous Mandarin

CSO's Beyond this Scores series provides concert-goers with an examination of a single work through visuals, narrations and live performance examples, touching on its context in history and the composer's oeuvre; each event ends with a performance of the entire work. Subscriptions to the series jumped 84% over 2005-06.

Other figures surpassing those from last year abound. Net and total assets grew 13 and 7 percent to $296 million and $465 million, respectively; the endowment rose15 percent to $233 million. The orchestra's operating expenses increase two percent, and 82% percent of its operating budget was allocated to concerts, programs, and educational and community activities.

The orchestra's ongoing music director search could also be over within half a year, CSO Association chairman William A. Osborn told the Chicago Sun-Times. "We'd like to do it sooner rather than later," he said

By Kevin Shihoten