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September 21, 2009

Add Philadelphia Orchestra to long list of the financially troubled

Over the weekend, my colleague Peter Dobrin reported on the Philadelphia Orchestra's emergency need $15 million to held ends meet. Here's an excerpt: 

The orchestra is running a string of large deficits - $3.3 million for the fiscal year ended Aug. 31, and a projected $7.5 million for the current year - and has maxed out its line of credit.

"Unless we, individually and collectively, provide critical financial support in the next several weeks, there is danger that

our effort to fix and transform the orchestra will falter," incoming board chairman Richard B. Worley wrote in a four-page memo to the board. "Without financial stability, we will continually be forced to devote our energy to triaging short-term financial crises, making long-term sustainable change more difficult. We cannot shrink our way to a better future."

Discouraging news is everywhere in the arts world, of course. It's going to be another rough season. The situation in Philadelphia drives home what's happening here, where the Baltimore Symphony has been doing the battle of the budget since the Great Recession grabbed hold, and has done so with a remarkable degree of internal cohesiveness. For more on the local picture (just in case you missed it -- and we wouldn't want that to happen, would we?), I've got a story in today's paper.

Posted by Tim Smith at 12:16 PM | | Comments (1)
        

Comments

The Philadelphians could read a HUGELY important lesson from the BSO's recent history (of which I am actually quite impressed, _despite_ my very vocal complaints about the programming), but I just wonder if they (or certain factions within the organization) are not too arrogant to do so. Right now, they're _still_ searching for a new music director (Dutoit is just a respectable stop-gap), and that's probably going to remain a challenge, considering how poorly those same "factions" treated Eschenbach.

(I don't believe that Venzago has even been considered -- they're looking for some young firebrand like Jurowski [or another Dudamel, even more likely], and they don't seem to be pursuing several other important candidates with anything even approaching what should be the deserved effort. They appear to be quite rudderless at the moment, but that will hopefully pass without the musicianship suffering too greatly...)

Alsop's arrival on the scene here has absolutely galvanized the organization (if Glicker did _anything_ good, even if by accident, then this choice is it!), and Meecham & Bronfein are obviously _very_ sympathetic (as well as obviously intelligent) executives.

(Though everyone knows that a 4-legged stool is even sturdier -- you just have to conceive of the fourth leg's identity and add it to the mix! Or, you could just consider everyone as being part of an anchored, rotating bar-stool, whose steel pole would require _tremendous_ effort to destroy. Oh, enough seat analogies already... ;^)

I had to sit down to read that. Thanks, as always. TIM

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About Tim Smith
I was born in Washington, D.C., and grew up there. Initial thoughts of becoming a cocktail pianist faded when I realized I hated taking requests. I decided to study music history instead, and got a B. A. in that field from Eisenhower College in Seneca Falls, New York, and an M.A. from Occidental College in Los Angeles. After free-lance gigs for the Washington Star and the Washington Post, I worked as classical music critic for the South Florida Sun-Sentinel during the 1980s and '90s, a period when I also ventured into radio, contributing to NPR and hosting a weekly show on a West Palm Beach station. Since April 2000, I've been classical music critic at the Baltimore Sun. Over the years, I've written occasional articles for the New York Times, BBC Music Magazine and other publications, and I'm a longtime, regular contributor to Opera News and the U.K. magazine Opera. You may still be able to find on the remainder racks my one and only book, The NPR Curious Listener's Guide to Classical Music (Perigee, 2002).
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