The Academy Concert and Ball didn’t make enough money, leaders say. The new Great Stages gala aims to fix that.

When a successor to the Academy of Music Anniversary Concert and Ball makes its debut May 16, it won’t look like the birthday bash that has celebrated the historic hall for more than six decades.

There won’t be white-tie and tails, a sit-down dinner or dancing, or the ball book — that strangely alluring record of a certain stratum of Philadelphia’s social and business leaders in posed shots with their favorite charity projects. Absent will be a good deal of the 19th-century aura that made the Academy Ball uniquely Philadelphia.

The Great Stages Gala, as the new event has been dubbed, blends elements of the Academy concert and the former Kimmel Center gala. It signals a shift both generational and societal.

The tickets are still pricey, with sponsorships starting at $1,000 per person and going up to a $50,000 package allowing your group of 20 friends into two preconcert receptions in the Academy. But the concert happens in Verizon Hall, and, reflective of the 2021 merger of the Philadelphia Orchestra and Kimmel Center, is meant to drum up support for the entire enterprise. Proceeds benefit the Academy of Music, the Miller Theater, and the Kimmel Center.

The Academy of Music Anniversary Concert and Ball, a mainstay of the social calendar since 1957, has been shelved. Whether it will ever return is an open question.

“Well, never say never. We could be doing another Academy Ball-type thing at some point in the future,” says Matías Tarnopolsky, president and CEO of the Philadelphia Orchestra and Kimmel Center, Inc. “The Academy Ball is such an iconic Philadelphia institution, and one we have to be very respectful of, obviously. We had the interruption of the pandemic. And we’re revisiting how we do these types of really important fundraising events and make them meaningful for the community and make them successful financially.”

The Academy Ball could reappear someday, perhaps as an event that happens every few years. It might happen in the spring instead of the last Saturday in January.

“We could do something again in the future,” said Tarnopolsky, “but we have no concrete plans for now.”

A timeout for the Academy Ball was called in February 2020, just before the COVID-19 shutdown. Some of the event’s planners quietly expressed concern over it being perceived as elitist. Publicly, they have cited high overhead as the problem.

As “massive and exciting as the party was,” says Tarnopolsky, it “was very expensive and would only net about $200,000 to the organization. And we’d spend months and months planning and we’d have a great time. But ultimately, we need to raise money to support these wonderful Philadelphia institutions. The Great Stages Gala is already netting more money than the Academy Ball would.”

A final net figure was not yet available, he said.

But the fundraising muscle of the Academy Anniversary Concert and Ball was hard to measure in toto since the event generated awareness and good feelings that paid off in gifts and bequests used to cover badly needed restoration work on the building. More than $80 million has been spent on various repairs and upgrades since 1994.

The May 16 Great Stages Gala — black-tie optional — features the Philadelphia Orchestra led by Yannick Nézet-Séguin. Soprano Renée Fleming and vocalist Angélique Kidjo will sing separately and together. Veteran news anchor Jim Gardner is host.

Tarnopolsky hopes the gala, which is being thought of as an annual event, will continue one particular function of the Academy Ball. It was one of the few occasions each year that allowed people from various sectors to rub elbows.

“We really do celebrate our role as a convener. And the fact that we can bring everybody together — Philadelphia’s business, philanthropic, civic, educational, and cultural community — in one place at one time is so important.”

In addition to the expensive sponsorship tickets — which, depending on the level of support, include either one or both preconcert receptions — concert-only tickets are available at $50-$150.

One of the characteristics of the Academy Ball everyone will be happy to see gone is the possibility of snow that regularly made planners nervous. In 2016, an approaching blizzard compelled leaders to cancel the event for the first time in its history.

The current forecast for May 16 calls for a low of 63 degrees.

“You definitely don’t have to worry about snow,” said Tarnopolsky, “which is great.”

Information: philorch.org; concert-only tickets at 215-893-1999, sponsorship tickets at 215-670-2386.