The Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra headed into an annual general meeting as the only orchestra in Canada without debt.

Ticket sales were up 12 per cent last year and are up another 10 per cent this year.

President Ann Lewis-Luppino said the organization is attracting a new audience with pop concerts, a new one-hour "Rush Hour" series and music that appeals to a younger audience.

"But our older audience, they are saying: 'I'm energized, I feel good when I have young people around me.' So they are just as excited as we are when they see young people in the audience."

However, she notes the orchestra does have a $100,000 deficit amounting to about one per cent of its $10-million operating budget, which it is covering with reserve funds.

"Forty per cent of our revenues comes from ticket sales. Just under 20 per cent comes from government and that number has declined.… Our Alberta government cut us back about three years ago"

Kenneth DeLong, a music professor at the University of Calgary and longtime reviewer, said the orchestra is also trying to put a fresh face on the classics.

"In imaginative ways, the orchestra has tried to engage these kinds of people and their range of audience has increased quite a little bit, I think, in the last five years."

The organization’s annual general meeting was set to be held at 5 p.m. MT Tuesday at Grant Thornton Conference Centre.