RALEIGH -- David Chambless Worters grew up in a four-piano house, which seems an appropriate start for someone who would spend his career helping to deliver Beethoven and Mozart to the public.
Worters, 42, only occasionally plays his piano these days. But the Harvard-educated arts executive is focused on a much larger musical instrument - managing the N.C. Symphony.
It has been a difficult time to be president and CEO of the symphony. Worters is attempting to dig the organization out of a mountain of debt and has shrunk its annual budget from $14.1 million to $11.4 million.
Some cutbacks during the deep recession have been "terrible," Worters said, but he thinks the worst is behind the nation's oldest state-supported symphony.
"I feel our orchestra turned a very important corner a year ago," Worters said in an interview in his office overlooking Glenwood Avenue. "The orchestra is on a much, much better track and has every reason to be optimistic about its future."
Music has always been an important part of the life of the Boston-bred Worters. His mother, Sylvia Chambless, a Juilliard-trained pianist from Louisiana, taught at the prestigious New England Conservatory and has given recitals at New York's Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall. His father was an electrical engineer and amateur pianist. His sister, now a nurse, played violin for the Boston Pops.
He would sometimes race his sister home to see who would get practice time on the family's Steinway.
"It was a house filled with music," said Susan Reel, his sister. "There was music all the time, on every level. We had music students constantly walking through our house."
Worters says he didn't have the ability for a professional career in music. His sister insists he's being modest.
It was at Harvard that he learned he had another talent. Besides lending his voice as a member of the school's Glee Club, Worters, an economics major, took responsibility for managing the club, planning concert tours, selling tickets and raising money.
What started as a college hobby became a career. After graduation, Worters ran a chamber group in Boston and oversaw orchestras in the Chicago area and upstate New York, quickly building a reputation as an up-and-coming orchestra manager.
"He is really very, very smart, and he has the ability to deal with current problems while keeping in mind the longer term balancing," said Henry Fogel, a mentor and the former president of the American Symphony Orchestra League.
Worters was just 31 when he took over the N.C. Symphony in 1999.
'Went out on a limb'
"It was quite a gamble," said Tim Clancy, a Raleigh construction executive who was president of the symphony board at the time. "He was quite young. We sort of went out on the limb.
"I think he has done a great job. He has got a ton of energy. Other than being a smart guy, he is eternally optimistic. He has done a lot with the symphony. He has gotten them through some tough labor negotiations."
The budget slashing of the past two years has been traumatic, Worters said. The organization has cut back programming, canceled a recording and eliminated a European trip.
But the worst has been a 19percent salary cut for the musicians.
"When you are needing to reduce your spending by that order of magnitude," Worters said, "unfortunately that is going to involve your people."
Worters took a 30 percent pay cut from $320,250 to $224,175.
"In 20 years, I had never been through any as remotely difficult as what we were going through," Worters said. "So I am all the more grateful that the organization came together and found a path forward."
Taking the blame
Worters said he wishes he had shown more foresight. The symphony budget had doubled in the decade under his leadership and was expanding just as the recession hit.
"We had tremendous goals for growth," Worters said. "So we hit the gas pedal. We had the new [concert] venues in 2001. We had [conductor] Grant Llewellyn's arrival in 2004. The orchestra was growing in size and stature. We very much wanted the orchestra to make its claim as one of America's truly great orchestras."
"I hold myself personally responsible for not hitting the brakes sooner," Worters said. "We went all the way through 2008 without making any significant adjustments. By the time 2009 rolled around the problem had become too big. So I wish I had seen the warning signs earlier."
Worters said one result of the economic crisis has been to refocus the orchestra's energies on its original mission of state service and education, cutting back on some of the less essential activities.
Despite the difficulties, Worters has no doubts about his own career path.
"It's been a wonderful two decades," Worters said. "I've been surrounded by the music and the musicians."
