CAN THIS SYMPHONY BE SAVED?

Columbus Symphony may slash players, season, budget

Musicians of the Columbus Symphony are in shock according to a story in today's Dispatch, about the news that Columbus Symphony board leaders are proposing a restructuring plan that will cut its musicians by 40 percent -- from 53 to 31 -- and reduce its performance weeks from 46 to 34. All that, of course, will slash $3 million from the orchestra's annual budget of $12 million.

The "other" CSO employs about 10 Cincinnati players on a regular basis.

To compare, our own CSO has 92 musicians (also a reduction), a 52-week contract and about a $35 million budget.

"We feel completely betrayed," Jim Akins, orchestra committee chair, told the Dispatch. He fears that it will mean the end of the Columbus Symphony.

The Columbus Symphony anticipates a $1.5 million deficit this year, and had $2.2 million in red ink last season. Ticket sales have been disappointing but improved slightly -- but corporate and individual donors are lagging, the article says.

It's sad, too, for the new music director, Junichi Hirokami, who is in his second season.

The orchestra has had a rocky history with its executive directors. It nearly crumbled under the burden of a $2 million debt and a musicians' strike during the reign of a previous music director Christian Badea. In 1998, the board ousted its executive director after an unexpected large operating deficit.

Recently, the musicians have taken a pay cut and a reduction of performance weeks, hoping they'd be reinstated.

This followed a public outcry and another contentious period between musicians, board and the public, when in May 2002, the board refused to renew the contract of popular music director Alessandro Siciliani. Shocked symphony fans formed a grass-roots movement to reinstate the maestro.

In 2004, the orchestra found itself without a music director, an executive director and a board chair. In addition, both the former board chair and the interim president were in trouble with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Then in 2006, Hirokami, a popular guest conductor with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, was given a three-year contract as music director. ...

Across the river in Louisville, things have fared no better with the Louisville Orchestra.

Clearly, there is something very wrong with this whole orchestra industry business model, especially when people in the general public are not committing to subscriptions. Clearly today's boards of trustees seem completely disconnected from the public that it so desperately needs. Then there's the fundraising issue. In Cincinnati, there have been loyal major million-dollar donors, but the annual fund hasn't included as many small donors across the entire community as is typical of other major orchestras.

IDEAS??