Trips to hear the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra have been a longstanding tradition in Emily Arneson’s family. So it was natural that concerts at the Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall would join her list of places to go to take “advantage of everything the city had to offer” as an adult.

Thanks to the loyalty of dedicated concertgoers like Arneson, plus a crop of new patrons, the BSO is bouncing back.

The century-old orchestra is seeing an increase in ticket sales. The number of households buying tickets or giving donations for the 2024-2025 season is up 22% compared with last year’s numbers. Paid tickets also increased 30% over the same time period, according to data provided by the BSO.

The orchestra’s leadership credits the appointment of the first person of color as its new music director, more accessible ticket options, and a greater diversity in community-driven programming for its growth. Of the 4,500 households that subscribe to the orchestra, one-third of them are new, BSO data shows.

“We offer something for everyone,” Allison Burr-Livingstone, senior vice president of advancement and communications, said of the orchestra’s expanded programming.

One sign of success? The BSO recently ran out of concert programs because ticket sales exceeded expectations.

The top-selling shows over the last year included a film concert series segment of “The Nightmare Before Christmas,” the holiday special Cirque Nutcracker, and Blockbuster Broadway, which is part of the orchestra’s Pops concert series highlighting music from Tina Turner, Duke Ellington, Cole Porter and more.

The BSO balance sheet, however, is not all high notes. Total concert revenue has not returned to pre-pandemic levels.

In 2019, the orchestra pulled in $7.5 million, even with a canceled summer concert series and a musician lockout. That figure, however, plummeted to $4.6 million in 2020, and fell off a cliff in 2021, to $821,000, according to BSO figures. In recent years, revenues have grown back significantly, including $6 million in fiscal year 2024, according to unaudited figures.

Now’s there’s a goal to reach at least $7.6 million in fiscal year 2025, which ends this August.

The BSO’s increased ticket sales mirror a nationwide trend as audiences have started to return to in-person musical events over at least the last two years, according to Simon Woods, president and CEO of League of American Orchestras, an industry group devoted to helping orchestras thrive and grow.

“I think that orchestras more than ever before are thinking very hard about how to engage deeply with their communities,” Woods said.

He added that orchestras know they must prioritize ticket sales as well as community engagement when thinking about how to provide impact and value.

Travis Newton, author of “Orchestra Management Handbook: Building Relationships in Turbulent Times,” said it is important for orchestras to become relevant in people’s everyday lives. Today, he added, there are even more options to consume content, many from the comfort of home.

Newton sees the potential for change and growth among orchestras by discovering the community’s needs and interests.

“If Baltimore is seeing this increase, they must be doing some listening,” Newton said. “The trick with that is balancing community need and interests with the orchestra’s artistic mission, so the two are complementing each other and working together.”

Orchestras traditionally have had a reputation of catering to a largely white, affluent and older crowds. But staff at the BSO say they are witnessing changes in audience demographics, including the ages and racial makeup of its concertgoers.

At the BSO, new types of programming have led to some unease among older and longtime patrons. Arneson, who usually enjoys the Broadway and Pops concerts, remembered a performance by Baltimore native and Tony Award-winning actor Andre De Shields, which featured candid reflections on the influence Charm City had on his life and career. That, Arneson said, didn’t land well with some older patrons.

But Arneson, 35, said she appreciated the orchestra for letting him have “the artistic leniency” to perform how he saw fit. Many times, Arneson said, she encounters a mostly older crowd at concerts and still “worries about the future, and what will happen to the arts if we don’t get young people involved and excited.”

Sally Miles, 77, who’s been going to BSO concerts for at least 40 years, has the same concern when she looks around at the classical performances.

“It worries me that we can’t get people to want to go and sit and listen to it. It’s visually appealing,” said Miles, who lives in Mays Chapel.

Miles enjoyed bringing her father-in-law, then a music critic in New York, to hear the acoustics in the Meyerhoff, which is located in the city’s Mount Vernon neighborhood. These days, she’s likely to go to a Sunday afternoon concert because she can find someone more willing to go with her. Thinking about her future, she said she’s even researched retirement homes to see if they have a transport service to get her to concerts.

Miles, a fan of classical music, especially Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7, said she generally has to warm up to change. But she said she likes how much conductors have grown to involve audiences more over time. She thinks Jonathon Heyward, who now conducts the BSO, is “doing a great job.”

Arneson considers it a “major blessing” the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra brought in Heyward because there seems to be more wraparound services for people to understand the music and the musicians.

After arriving in Baltimore for the 2023-2024 season, Heyward pledged to focus on “programming that is relevant to the community,” both in “having familiar faces in the community on our stages” as well as “pre- and post-concert experiences that relate to the community.” The orchestra is wrapping up their “Music for Maryland Tour,” a community-focused concert that brings the BSO to the state’s 23 counties and includes pay-what-you-wish pricing.

In an era of rising costs, several patrons said they’re getting a fair shake with BSO tickets.

Miles said she looks for ticket package deals where she can pick several shows at a time. Todd Morman, 66, who moved to Baltimore in April 2024, prefers the BSO’s Passport.

I thought it “was too good to be true,” Morman said.

BSO Passport holders have flexible access to most concerts and can bring a friend for $25. The $140 passport was once restricted to people 40 years old and younger, but the age requirement was lifted last year.

“It’s a fantastic deal. I have never seen anything like it, and I hope this kind of thing spreads,” Morman said.

Since Morman moved to Baltimore from North Carolina, he looked for the integration of modern, living composers like BSO Composer-in-Residence James Lee III alongside classical masters like Mozart and Chopin.

Morman plans on buying another Passport next year.