In these few years, I've joined a number of choirs. I never thought I needed to check the financial of a choir. Some choirs require a subscription so the choir can cover the cost of rehearsal venue, the conductor and the pianist. Some don't need a subscription as they can cover their cost through sales of tickets in concerts.
Recently, I joined a choir which requires a subscription. The amount is reasonable by market standard. Starting from the very first rehearsal, the chairman kept asking us to sell tickets for a series of 4 concerts organized by the choir. Then, I kept receiving e mails saying that if they couldn't sell the tickets, they would loss a lot of money, HK$250,000. There were also e mails asking us to help to find sponsors. I really find that very annoying. It's none of my business as I already paid my subscription.
The 4 concerts didn't sell well and they loss HK$250,000, which they hope to make it up in the upcoming concert, which I will be singing. They said the cost of this concert is $350,000. Again, they keep pushing us for ticket sales.
This concert's program is 2.5 hours, which is long compared with the usual 1.5 hours to 2 hours. The concert is held in Cultural Centre Concert Hall. They don't have an orchestra and they hire expensive professionals from outside for the concert. They have soloists from overseas, which is much more expensive than having local vocalists.
Probably because of financial issue, we have only 1 full rehearsal with the soloists. (From my experience with HK Phil, they always have 3 full rehearsals with orchestra and soloists. Even with other choirs, there were at least 2 full rehearsals.) Last night's rehearsal with orchestra, we didn't have players for all parts. We missed the tympani, the trombone, the horn, the oboe, ... which made the accompaniment very fragmented.
Another problem is the long program. For a 3 hours rehearsal session with 20 min break, we actually have only 2 hours 40 mins. To rehearse for a 2.5 hour program, we can only run through it once and no time for working on anything.
I really think this choir is financially overstretching itself too much. Not every performance needs to be in Cultural Centre Concert Hall. Probably a small venue will be cheaper. No need for overseas soloists. There are many up to standard soloists in HK. The program needs not be 2.5 hours if there's not enough money for adequate rehearsals.
People are so stressed over ticket sales. I felt like I was in an insurance company. Every week, they announced the top ticket selling choristers and even asked the top one to share the technique of ticket selling.
I paid to have a good time singing. I am not to be pushed to sell tickets for free and I am not there to hear about all the financial problems.