ABO director: 'ticket income will never meet the cost of a concert'

29 January 2015, 18:29 | Updated: 15 December 2016, 11:50

The Director of the Association of British Orchestras, Mark Pemberton, told Classic FM that although audience numbers are going up, income from ticket sales is going down.

Speaking to Classic FM's Jane Jones, Pemberton sounded a note of caution about increase in audience size: "It's a huge challenge for orchestras… the ticket income will never meet the cost of a concert."

Pemberton was also quick to praise the "collegiate" atmosphere of the conference, with diverse members of the orchestral community all learning from one another.

"We all want to work together to make sure classical music thrives in this country, and we can be our own worst enemy if we compete and if we are secretive and if we knife each other in the back. That's not the way in which we do things here."

One thing Pemberton is certain of, though, is that classical music is not dead, describing the notion as "Rubbish."