{"id":281,"date":"2007-04-18T22:57:18","date_gmt":"2007-04-19T06:57:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2007\/04\/18\/troubles-in-charlotte\/"},"modified":"2013-02-07T18:07:47","modified_gmt":"2013-02-08T02:07:47","slug":"troubles-in-charlotte","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2007\/04\/18\/troubles-in-charlotte\/","title":{"rendered":"troubles in charlotte"},"content":{"rendered":"

I noticed this story about the Charlotte Symphony<\/a> a few days ago, and just got around to reading it today. It presents a scenario that is chilling in that it shows a path which the Oregon Symphony might find itself if the right corrective measures aren’t taken. Here is a link<\/a> to the article from the Charlotte Observer<\/em>, dated 4\/17\/07. There are a few passages that stand out in my mind – read those after the jump.<\/p>\n

A day in the life of the Charlotte Symphony, as described by its conductor:<\/p>\n

“We’re just afraid of the financial situation, from morning to evening.”<\/p>\n

Christof Perick was explaining his decision to step down in 2009.<\/p>\n

Constrained by four years of six-figure deficits, he figured he had done all he could with the job he was hired for: improving the orchestra.<\/p>\n

Since those comments last fall, the orchestra has launched a turnaround effort. Board members have kicked in more money. Players have agreed to a pay cut next season.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The deficits that have plagued the OSO for years are continuing to mount, and there does not yet seem to be a long-range plan in place to handle the situation (with the realization that such plans take time to formulate, especially with a new leader coming in), though the board has mandated a balanced budget for the upcoming season in the strongest possible terms. Certainly, we share with Charlotte that $$ are job one – finding new ones and keeping current ones.<\/p>\n

Carlos Kalmar was brought in with a clear mandate of taking the orchestra to the next level, and this he has largely accomplished in a remarkably short time. There are a quite a few orchestras at the higher levels looking for music director candidates, and Carlos has been on a few short lists in the last couple seasons. While in town, he is worked around the clock to go after donor prospects and close some new deals – he’s game to do it and he works tremendously hard – how long can he continue to do this along with the increased load of high-profile guest conducting engagements as long as the financial situation remains in such flux?<\/p>\n

A seven-year streak of balanced budgets ended with the orchestra’s 2002-03 season. Hit by the post-9-11 economic downturn and surging health care costs, the orchestra ran up a $653,000 deficit that season. As years passed, annual salary increases called for in the players’ contract added to expenses. Cost-cutting couldn’t close the gap.<\/p>\n

The orchestra expects the 2006-2007 season to end with the smallest deficit since the troubles began: “north of $125,000” on a budget of nearly $7.9 million, president Richard Early said.<\/p>\n

But next season’s budget is projected to be $200,000 higher, at $8.1 million. The following season: $8.5 million.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This situation is very similar to that which we face here, though our annual budget is around $14 million, close to double that of Charlotte. The OSO players took a pay cut back in 2003, which we had only just begun to recoup in our last contract for the 2005-2006 season, which has since expired.<\/p>\n

The Charlotte endowment is just $4 million, as opposed to the OSO’s which is around $24 million, but we lost nearly half our our endowment’s value in the stock bubble crash due to horrible mismanagement from some now-departed members of the foundation board. The endowment isn’t a magic bullet, however, the Boston Symphony has a near $350 million endowment, and they’re having budget problems of their own.<\/p>\n

“It’s hard to understand,” Perick said, “that in a place with so much wealth and so much money, (paying for the orchestra) seems to be a big problem.”<\/p>\n

Tapping into that money is the challenge, members of Charlotte’s philanthropic scene say. It’s an issue that goes beyond the orchestra, which counts on donors for about a third of its revenues.<\/p>\n

The city doesn’t have as deep a tradition of donating money to causes — be they the arts or social services — as cities that have been big for longer. There are fewer charitable foundations to provide hefty grants. There are fewer individuals who write sizeable checks. There are fewer businesses providing six-figure donations or sponsorships.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This strikes a huge chord for me – it’s something that I’ve wondered about ever since I moved to Portland eleven years ago. I hope that a new development director will help the situation – maybe starting a drive to build a new hall might help us more than we’d care to admit?<\/p>\n

What’s the good news? Carlos Kalmar still has several years left in his current contract, and he hasn’t made any noises about moving on – he remains committed to this orchestra and this community. Ticket sales seem to be building: this is just anecdotal, but the view from the stage has shown some pretty strong sales and less swaths of empty seats. The most recent pops series was a bit better than those earlier in the year, even in Salem. The Miller Match<\/a> campaign seems to be very successful – and though we have a bit more to go, it appears that we may be able to avail ourselves of the entire sum possible under the terms of the grant (funds matched up to $2 million)!<\/p>\n

<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I noticed this story about the Charlotte Symphony a few days ago, and just got around to reading it today. It presents a scenario that is chilling in that it shows a path which the Oregon Symphony might find itself if the right corrective measures aren’t taken. Here is a link to the article from […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":303,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2],"tags":[86,55,3666,3662,62,3656],"class_list":["post-281","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-orchestra-world","tag-conductor","tag-orchestra","tag-oregon","tag-portland","tag-symphony","tag-the-orchestra-world"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pa8kC-4x","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":650,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2008\/01\/09\/more-eddins-audition-news\/","url_meta":{"origin":281,"position":0},"title":"more eddins audition news","author":"Charles Noble","date":"January 9, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Check out the latest posts from conductor Bill Eddins (music director of the Edmonton Symphony) as he contends for a post with the Charlotte Symphony Orchestra. 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