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Although officials on Wednesday announced an increase in 2004-05 subscription sales over 2003-04, overall ticket sales did not meet budget projections for increased revenue. The difference between projected and actual ticket sales is contributing -- along with lower-than-projected donations -- to a possible $500,00 shortfall for the fiscal year ending Aug. 31.

Additional financial concerns are a salary increase for musicians and staff beginning in September and contract negotiations with the musicians next season.

The symphony and its musicians will negotiate a new contract that will take effect in September 2006. Neither symphony president Larry Tamburri nor cellist and musicians' committee chairman Hampton Mallory would talk about the upcoming negotiations, but the forces at play are obvious.

The symphony's difficulty in balancing the budget, with an $83,000 base pay for the musicians, suggests that next season's increase to just over $100,000 base pay will be an anomaly.

The musicians took a large pay cut for the first two years of their contract, but the base salary for next season, the third and final year of the contract, increases to an amount set as 95 percent of the average base pay at the New York Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony and Chicago and Cleveland orchestras.

Although symphony officials won't confirm an exact amount -- because of nuances of contract language at the other orchestras -- the figure will be slightly more than $100,000.

Top symphony officials took an 8 percent pay cut for the past two seasons, while pay for the rest of the staff was frozen.

Cost of living factors between Pittsburgh and larger cities can justify some disparity in compensation. But if PSO musicians are paid $25,000 or $30,000 less than salaries at top American orchestras, the currently world-class orchestra would risk becoming a steppingstone orchestra -- one where players come to gain experience before the best move on to higher pay at top orchestras.

The symphony's budget for 2004-05 totaled $26.1 million, and will increase to $30 million for 2005-06. Final figures for the 2004-05 fiscal year will be released Oct. 19. Although the orchestra has finished its concerts for the season, money-raising efforts continue through August.

"We project based on trends, and trends this season are taking us to a half-million-dollar deficit," Tamburri said.

But last year's trend offers hope for this year: Symphony leaders projected a potential deficit at this time last season, but ended with a $463,000 surplus primarily because of large donations late in the fiscal year.

Symphony leaders are encouraged by the turnaround in subscription sales after more than a decade of declines. Mellon Grand Classics new subscriptions for 2004-05 increased by 60 percent from 2003-04, up to 2,570 from 1,605. Pops new subscriptions increased 120 percent to 2,026 from 916 the year before.

Although not a direct comparison to the previous figures, an indicator of continued subscription sales' success is that new and renewed subscriptions to classical and pops concerts are up 234 individual subscriptions compared with sales levels at this time last year.

Enlarging the subscription base is vital to the symphony's financial success, Tamburri said, because while it costs the symphony only pennies to renew each subscription, the marketing costs of generating single ticket sales can be 75 cents or a dollar or more per ticket.

"Money is an immediate problem, but there's plenty of potential for strong support in our community," Mallory said. "With new leadership and new focus at Heinz Hall, I believe more and more people are recognizing that the symphony is a vital part of life in Pittsburgh. That's why news of subscription increases is a harbinger of better times. That's the biggest news this season, absolutely."

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