RALEIGH -- The N.C. Symphony, which like many cultural institutions has struggled for survival during the wrenching downturn, has turned a corner, breaking even during the concert season that just concluded.
The symphony, which performs Beethoven and Mozart not only in elegant concert halls but also in rural high school gyms, pulled itself back from the financial precipice as a result of the work of a large number of players. Those included private donors willing to dig deeper; the musicians union, which made large concessions; and the legislature, which provided more aid.
"Hopefully, the very worst is behind us," David Chambless Worters, the symphony's president and CEO, said in an interview Monday.
"The symphony has a long journey before us," Worters said. "But it is a tremendous result for 2009-2010. We are very pleased that we were able to turn the corner. It's a huge win for everyone."
The N.C. Symphony, regarded as among the top 50 orchestras in the country, remains in the red. But the amount it owes the bank has been reduced to $2.8 million as of June 30, the end of the fiscal year, Worters said. That compares to $3.8 million a year ago.
Worters painted a picture of a symphony that by the end of the fiscal year was slowly pulling itself out of crisis.
It did so with the help of the community, which has rallied to the symphony founded in 1932. Donations and sponsorships increased during the past year to $3.15 million from $2.34 million the previous year, including $147,000 raised in a benefit concert in June headlined by jazz saxophonist Branford Marsalis of Durham.
Despite a difficult budget year, the legislature offered a $1.5 million challenge grant if the symphony could raise $8 million in a special private fundraising drive. The symphony raised $8,044,000, Worters said. The legislature, in the budget that passed last week, renewed the challenge grant for the 2010-2011 fiscal year.
"We are enormously grateful to everyone who made it possible - our ticket buyers and almost 4,000 donors," Worters said.
Many sacrifices
But much of the improved situation was the result of budget cuts, which has reduced the orchestra's expenses to $11.6 million in 2009-2010 down from a $14.1 million budget that had initially been proposed for the year. The budget for 2008-09 was $13.6 million.
In May, the musicians union agreed to a 19 percent salary cut from what they had been scheduled to receive in their contract during the coming season. The change will mean that the base pay for a symphony musician will drop from $59,400 a year to $47,956 a year. Other symphony employees, including conductor Grant Llewellyn, also took pay cuts, ranging from 10 percent to 30 percent.
The sound of thrift
The salary reductions were part of austerity measures that have included moving the offices to a less expensive location, postponing expensive guest artists such as mezzo-soprano Catherine Wyn-Rogers and pianist Peter Donohoe and guest conductors such as Andrea Quinn, former music director of the New York City Ballet, and Alexander Mickelthwate, music director of the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra.
Symphony leaders also declined to perform elaborate pieces of music that require extra musicians such as Anton Bruckner's Symphony No. 8 and Joseph Hayden's oratorio "The Creation."
When one artist, French pianist Pascal Roge, was told the symphony could no longer afford him, he performed free last November. Violinist Joshua Bell donated his services for a fundraiser in a private home.
The N.C. Symphony is based in Raleigh. But it holds concerts across the state and is also one of the few orchestras with a major educational mission, holding public school concerts throughout North Carolina.
The symphony gets about 40 percent of its budget from individuals and corporate donations, 30 percent from ticket sales, 20 percent from legislative appropriations and 10 percent from other sources such as local government grants and endowment earnings.
