It’s 27 years since the notes rang out at the very first Music at Oxford concert. There have been highs and lows in the intervening years, but how is the organisation doing now?

“We’re just on the end of our financial year as we speak, and it’s been the most successful concert season in the company’s history, so far as I can tell from the available records,” Music at Oxford’s current chief executive Simon Courtenay-Taylor told me.

“We sold out all but two concerts, which is fantastic news for us. I think we got it right, because people surely wouldn’t be paying out their hard-earned cash in these straitened times for concerts that they didn’t think were the best they could go to.”

We were talking in Simon’s office, with its attractive view across Osney Lock. Not that he has any time to watch the boats coming and going outside, for since he joined Music at Oxford three years ago, Simon has been busy increasing the concert programme, and expanding the number of venues used.

“When I came here I was quite surprised to discover there were only 13 concerts that year. Over the period the company normally performs, October to June, I just felt that was too small an amount. Maybe at that point I was foolish, and didn’t realise the financial constraints, but we pushed that up to 20 the next year, and 22 the following year.

“In terms of venues, last season I brought in the Oxford Chapel Series, to use some of the beautiful college chapels, and to give opportunities to upcoming artists. People have really taken this idea on board — all three concerts were sold out — so we’re continuing with another three concerts this season.”

Simon Courtenay-Taylor is no airy-fairy artist, who fancifully imagines that money grows on trees. His career path includes production management for companies as widely varied as Porsche, Ford, and Northern Ballet Theatre.

He was then appointed technical director of Welsh National Opera, responsible for negotiating that company’s involvement in building the Wales Millennium Centre on the one hand, and overseeing the costs of manoeuvring large opera stage sets into Oxford’s New Theatre on the other.

All this varied experience, Simon explained, has come in very useful.

“Funding has always been tight for Music at Oxford. We receive no public funding, and rely on benefactors and donations. We have to balance the budget. That means the concert season must break even, and the overheads have to be met from gifts and donations.

“We’re particularly lucky with orchestras, who will come here for a reasonable fee, because they understand that we lose a colossal amount of money each night we programme an orchestra in the Sheldonian, because it is not ideal in terms of size — even if we sell out, we lose between £12,000 and £15,000 on a concert with the Philharmonia or the Hallé. So we have to make that money back somewhere else.

“The balancing act is what’s interesting — making it work without losing artistic quality, that’s the really fascinating bit. My artistic programmer and I will spend a huge amount of time arguing about whether Mark Padmore and Paul Lewis are more artistically interesting and exciting for Oxford audiences than somebody else.

“We’ll be looking at the numbers as well, but at the end of the day we’ll be trying very hard to keep the artistic reasoning paramount.”

Now all is signed and sealed for Music at Oxford’s 2010-2011 season. What, I asked Simon, particularly caused him to cry “YES!” in triumphant tones as the ink dried on the contract?

“The first concert, with the Monteverdi Choir and Sir John Eliot Gardiner. We’ve wanted to do a Monteverdi Vespers for a while, but we’ve held off because we wanted to do the right one. The opportunity came up to do this concert with Wadham College, which is, like the Vespers, celebrating its 400th anniversary. It’s a perfect combination.

“That’s been very exciting, but I guess for me personally, probably the thing I’ve worked at longest was to bring the pianist Paul Lewis back here — he’s doing three concerts, one with singer Mark Padmore.

“We’re also trying one or two new things: a mini Easter festival at St Barnabas Church, for instance, with Stile Antico and Tenebrae. I hope that beautiful location, and those two wonderful choral exponents will go down very well.”

Full details of Music at Oxford’s new season are on musicatoxford.com: Box office: 01865 244806.