Virginia Chamber Orchestra

What it reported doing in 2024

The Virginia Chamber Orchestra's 2024-2025 season began in the Fall of 2024 with a continuation of its very popular "Music in the Gardens" series at The Meadowlark Botanical Gardens in Vienna, VA. These four delightful and engaging chamber concerts, begun during the COVID pandemic to offer safe outdoor concerts, were held on four consecutive Sunday afternoons in September and each concert was experienced by approximately 500 attendees who either sat on blankets, lawn chairs, or meandered around the grounds with their families while the music filled the air. The VCO then opened its classical series on October 12, 2024 with a concert entitled "Love of the Old, Lure of the New" at The Falls Church Episcopal Church. This lovely concert featured the VCO concertmaster as soloist and drew a crowd of approximately 125 people from the Falls Church community. As the VCO does for every concert, it offered a number of free tickets to residents of Walter Reed, Wounded Warriors, the USO, and The Fenwick. On February 7, 2025 the VCO performed a concert entitled "Mendelssohn's Masterpiece" in the main hall at Capital One Hall in Tysons. This concert was attended by approximately 540 guests, once again including approximately 145 veteran and retirees who were offered complimentary tickets to honor their service. The VCO finished its classical concert series with its annual side-by-side concert entitled "Tragic Love" with the William and Mary Symphony Orchestra at The George Washington Masonic Memorial Theater in Alexandria, VA on March 23, 2025. This is a highly popular concert each year, attended not only by local concert goers but by over 160 parents of the William and Mary students. This annual offering allows music students from the William and Mary College to perform side-by-side with one of Northern Virginia's premier professional Chamber Orchestras. Lastly, the VCO finished its season with it's Spring offering of four concerts in May and June at The Meadowlark Botanical Gardens. The first concert entitled "A Mother and Child Reunion" was held on May 11th, a Mother's Day Celebration, the second concert showcased the VCO Brass Quintet on May 24th to celebrate Memorial Day, the third concert entitled "Dance Around the World" on June 8th featured popular classical dance programming and the fourth concert on June 22nd entitled "Good Vibrations" featured a delightful oboe and string quartet program. All four concerts brought out hundreds of guests made up of families, veterans, and community concert goers. All of these VCO "Music in the Gardens" concerts remain free as they have always been to anyone who purchases a ticket to The Meadowlark Botanical Gardens, which is a nominal fee in the range of $6.

Financial Efficiency

• Mission deployment rate: 59.6%; rating input score 60
• Program expense ratio: 62.1%; rating input score 62

Transparency & Controls

• Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 52nd percentile among comparable filings
• Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100

Sustainability

• Operating margin: 8.4%; rating input score 55; 55th percentile among comparable filings
• Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.36; rating input score 29; 29th percentile among comparable filings
• Liabilities to assets ratio: 0; rating input score 76; 76th percentile among comparable filings
• Officer compensation ratio: 0%; rating input score 25; 25th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

• Program expense growth: 3.4% per year; rating input score 100; 41st percentile among comparable filings
• Revenue growth: 5.3% per year; rating input score 100; 49th percentile among comparable filings
• Asset growth: 13.3% per year; rating input score 100; 70th percentile among comparable filings