It's the hottest seat in town.

Tickets to Lancaster Symphony Orchestra concerts are in such demand that the orchestra this season added a fifth performance to its weekends at the Fulton.

And even with the additional concert, sales are at 90 percent capacity.

While the popularity of the symphony is music to everyone's ears, it's a tough fit for the 684-seat Fulton Opera House.

The solution?

Maybe a new performing arts center, seating up to 1,800, in downtown Lancaster.

"In the next five, six or seven years, it's going to be difficult for the symphony to be able to continue to perform in the Fulton based on the growth of our organization," explains Scott Robinson, the president and CEO of the Lancaster Symphony Orchestra.

"The logical step is to ask what if there was a larger venue we could perform in in downtown Lancaster."

Robinson stresses that the idea is in its very earliest stages, but one LSO officials have talked about with Mayor Rick Gray.

He is on board.

"The orchestra is a home run and with a bigger hall where they could perform for a larger audience, it would be a grand slam," Gray says. "And the hall would be available for other major things."

"It would be a separate non-profit entity," says Robinson of a future performing arts center. "We have looked at a number of scenerios across the country, and there have been a number of projects in small and mid-size comunities that have been successful."

Even the Fulton likes the idea.

"The more entertainment options we have downtown, the better for the community as a whole," says Aaron Young, the Fulton's managing director. "And we both have growing pains. There is just not enough time available in this building."

Robinson says the plan would call for the orchestra to be one of the major tenants in a performing arts center, which would serve other community organizations as well as top-tier headliners.

"You need a facility where the economics would work," Robinson says, citing a visit here by Wynton Marsalis as an example.

Last year, the famed jazz trumpeter performed at the American Music Theatre with the Lancaster Symphony Orchestra.

"The economics of a 684-seat hall like the Fulton doesn't allow someone like Wynton Marsalis to perform," Robinson says.

"Lancaster is blessed with a lot of mid-size performing venues, like Lyte Auditorium (at Millersville University), Barshinger (at Franklin & Marshall College) and the Fulton," he says. "But what is better for the orchestra is a place where we could play fewer performances."

Playing five concerts over a weekend is exhausting for the musicians and expensive for the symphony.

It's also sometimes tough to get the musicians they'd like because of the long commitment of time.

But ticket sales demanded the expanded schedule. The growth of the Lancaster Symphony has been nothing short of astounding.

Attendance at the symphony has increased by 70 percent in the last five years.

In the 2002-03 season, more than 10,000 tickets were sold. Last season, sales topped 17,000.

The orchestra has added two concerts to its weekend performances in recent years, as well as a pops concert and a New Year's Eve celebration, which is usually held at the American Music Theatre.

And this December, the symphony will perform a holiday concert at F&M.

Its operating budget is more than $1.4 million and the symphony actually made a profit of about $100,000 last year.

"Adding the fifth performance for many of the programs at the Fulton was a short-term solution for ticket demand," says Robinson. "But for the long term, we really need to solve this problem.

Young says the Fulton's audience is growing, too, and the building is bursting at the seams with activity.

"For people who want to rent the theater, there are only about two viable weekends that are available when we or the symphony are not using the building," he says.

He says he often has to direct people to other venues in the county.

Although no locations have been scouted out, Robinson is adament that the performing arts center would be located downtown.

"This is an economic development opportunity," he says, "Look at the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia. Look at the economic development around there since it opened in 2000."

With the growth of First Friday as well as the expansion of the Pennsylvania Academy of Music right next to the Fulton and the new Lancaster Museum of Art, Lancaster is enjoying an arts renaissance.

"More and more people are turning to Lancaster City for the arts," says Young. 

The mayor says a performing arts center in downtown Lancaster is a terrific idea but cautions that downtown is hot property these days.

"There are (possible) locations downtown, but everything is in play right now," says Gray. "Yes, there are empty spaces, but at this point, he who hesitates is lost. I'm serious about that. People are looking at everything. There's a lot of juice flowing downtown."

CONTACT US: jholahan@LNPnews.com or 481-6016