Comments on: severe cuts proposed in detroit http://www.nobleviola.com/2010/07/29/severe-cuts-proposed-in-detroit/ Life on the working end of the viola. Fri, 10 Feb 2012 06:01:00 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Jerry Pritchard http://www.nobleviola.com/2010/07/29/severe-cuts-proposed-in-detroit/comment-page-1/#comment-15497 Jerry Pritchard Sun, 01 Aug 2010 05:37:47 +0000 http://www.nobleviola.com/?p=5127#comment-15497 This is really a travesty with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra in peril. A fine ensemble in a town that has been struggling for years, yet continuing to support a first-rate orchestra. This current financial situation was caused by ineptitude of the management, who unbelievably took the $74 million they raised a few years ago from donations earmarked to pay for the remodel and expansion of Orchestra Hall and commingled it with the endowment fund. The idea was to make money on their investments and service the debt on the building with some of the interest gained from the investments...you can guess how that worked out. They now have lost much of the endowment, can't make payments on the loan for the building renovation, and have a deficit of $3 million a year that continues to growing The orchestra has already taken salary cuts, cuts in staffing, and other reductions. Let's hope they find some magic or a BIG donor like Cincinnati did recently. This is really a travesty with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra in peril. A fine ensemble in a town that has been struggling for years, yet continuing to support a first-rate orchestra. This current financial situation was caused by ineptitude of the management, who unbelievably took the $74 million they raised a few years ago from donations earmarked to pay for the remodel and expansion of Orchestra Hall and commingled it with the endowment fund. The idea was to make money on their investments and service the debt on the building with some of the interest gained from the investments…you can guess how that worked out. They now have lost much of the endowment, can’t make payments on the loan for the building renovation, and have a deficit of $3 million a year that continues to growing

The orchestra has already taken salary cuts, cuts in staffing, and other reductions. Let’s hope they find some magic or a BIG donor like Cincinnati did recently.

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