The May 22 memo said average attendance for the 2005-06 season at Music Hall was 1,711, a slight increase from the previous season. The CSO saw big increases with Internet sales; single tickets sold via the Web increased 13 percent. Excluding subscription tickets and group sales tickets, which the CSO does not sell online, 22 percent of all CSO and Pops single tickets were sold via the Web.

Single ticket sales increased 14 percent from the 2004-05 season and accounted for 35 percent of total sales. There were over 7,000 subscription sales, a 3 percent increase from the 2004-05 season.

The biggest attraction was the CSO's opening weekend, which featured Beethoven's Ninth Symphony ("Choral") with J‹rvi and the May Festival Chorus.

The Cincinnati Pops Orchestra, led by Erich Kunzel, became the first American pops orchestra to perform in China this season. However, ticket sales dropped slightly back home: Subscriptions were down 4 percent and single tickets 11 percent. In 2004-05, according to American Symphony Orchestra League statistics, the Pops had the largest average attendance of any pops orchestra in the country.