After 16 months cut off from performing in front of in-person audiences, the Hartford Symphony Orchestra is thinking big again.

“But we’re not completely out of the woods yet,” says HSO Executive Director Steve Collins.

Still, after a 2020-2021 season absent from its normal in-person audiences, the HSO will be performing in front of outdoor crowds in July at the Talcott Mountain Music Festival in Simsbury. Indoor concerts return Oct. 1, when HSO kicks off its 78th season at The Bushnell’s Belding Theater.

Financially the shutdown — which began in mid-March 2020, hitting the second half of HSO’s fiscal year and continuing its impact through this spring — was a fiscal blow to the organization, just as it was heading into its third season of black ink.

“The first six months of our 2019-2020 season were the best we had probably in about 10 years,” says Collins. “The concerts were doing well, the subscriber base [of 1,400] was strong; we were doing great things artistically and our $10 million capital campaign was rolling along as it approached its conclusion.”

After decades of dire fiscal fortunes, including near-bankruptcy in 2015, New England’s second-largest symphony was the most financially stable it’s been in years. Much of that stability came in two ways: a 2016 agreement with the musicians’ union to restructure contracts, which created cost-savings; and a $10 million stability fundraising campaign, which surpassed its goal as of Feb. 2020.

Because of HSO’s strong cash position heading into the pandemic, the shutdown’s fiscal impact wasn’t felt dramatically until it began to drag on for months, says Collins.

For its 2020 fiscal year, which ended Aug. 31, HSO reported about $4 million in revenue, down from ….CONTINUED