American soprano Renée Fleming. Photo by Timothy White, courtesy of DECCA Records.

Someone should send the Schubert Club the memo: Classical music is supposed to be dead. While detractors bemoan music graduates’ job prospects (which are actually better than average) and “put down that violin” campaigns backfire, ticket sales are booming at the Schubert Club.

When the curtain closed on the 2015-2016 season, the organization’s box office had sold just under 14,000 tickets for its International Artist Series, Music in the Park Series, Accordo Series, Schubert Club Mix, and Live at the Museum performances, setting an all-time record for the Club and individual records in several of the series. For example, demand for the Accordo Series was so high that it has been transplanted from Christ Church Lutheran to the much larger Plymouth Congregation Church to better accommodate the numbers of people walking through the door.

The headliner of last season’s box office was a Joshua Bell-Samuel Haywood double-header, which managed to sell out multiple times as Club organizers squeezed chairs into every available space that the fire marshal would permit. Now, subscribers and Classical music fans might be wondering if lightning strikes twice, because this year’s opening concert in the Schubert Club’s International Artist Series is also sold out well in advance.

This October 5 performance at the Ordway Center for the Performing Arts features soprano Renée Fleming and pianist Hartmut Höll; the last regular ticket to the concert flew out the door before September had a chance to land. If you’re hoping to see the concert and don’t have a ticket yet, several options are available:

• Start donating large amounts of money to the Schubert Club to try and commission Fleming for another concert. Warning: Very large amounts of money required.
• Start dating a single Schubert Club subscriber with a pair of tickets. Warning: Finding a single Schubert Club subscriber who doesn’t have a date lined up for this performance may be difficult.
• Practice your Mission Impossible skills to break into the Ordway’s Music Theater through the ceiling, gaining a unique perspective of the performance as you dangle by a rope. Warning: May also give you a unique perspective of law enforcement. 
• Send an email to ticketing@schubert.org to get added to the wait list. Wait list members will be notified immediately if additional tickets become available due to cancellations or extra seats being added.

Fleming, meanwhile, will not be idle between now and October 5th. She headlines the San Francisco Symphony’s season-opening gala tonight (Sept. 7), stars in the opening of the Oregon Symphony on Sept. 10, headlines with the Pacific Symphony on Sept. 13, and appears in Der Rosenkavalier with the Boston Symphony Orchestra on Sept. 29 and Oct. 1.

Update: Photographic examples of sneaking into Renée Fleming concerts are available.

• About
• Latest Posts

Basil Considine

Basil Considine was the Editor of the Twin Cities Arts Reader from 2018-2022. He served as Performing Arts Editor and Senior Classical Music and Drama Critic for the Arts Reader's first five years, before succeeding Hanne Appelbaum. He was previously the Resident Classical Music and Drama Critic at the Twin Cities Daily Planet and remains an occasional contributing writer for The Boston Musical Intelligencer and The Chattanoogan. He holds a PhD in Music and Drama from Boston University, an MTS in Sacred Music from the BU School of Theology, and a BA in Music and Theatre from the University of San Diego.

Basil was named one of Musical America's 30 Professionals of the Year in 2017. He was previously the Regional Governor for the National Opera Association's North Central Region and the 2021-2022 U.S. Fulbright Faculty Scholar to Madagascar.

Latest posts by Basil Considine (see all)

• REVIEW: Moving, Funny, Striking English (Guthrie Theater) - July 22, 2024
• REVIEW: The Time for Newsies is Now (Artistry) - July 21, 2024
• PREVIEW: Behind the Story – Before Out of the Box Opera’s Suor Angelica - June 24, 2024