Share
The Charlotte Symphony is in a precarious spot.
The orchestra was struggling to balance its finances even before the recession hit. As the downturn took hold, donations – especially from banks – wilted. Then the Arts & Science Council, motivated in part by the recession's toll on its own fundraising, decided to cut its support to the orchestra next season by more than $1million – potentially much more.
That puts a severe squeeze on the orchestra. Everyone sees that. But there's a lot at stake for the ASC, too.
I'm sorry to say that I've already lived through this once. The orchestra and arts fund I used to cover in Orlando, Fla. – the Florida Symphony and United Arts of Central Florida – played out the same story in the 1990s.
The orchestra had had financial troubles for years. The arts fund cut its support radically. The orchestra set off on urgent fundraising.
Sounds familiar, doesn't it?
Then:
The orchestra brought in enough donations to make up for the cut, but not enough to cover its usual fundraising needs. The orchestra folded.
Some people who were devoted to the orchestra thought the arts fund pushed it over the edge.
The arts fund, which was holding its annual campaign when the orchestra closed, figured it didn't need to raise as much in the orchestra's absence. It reduced its $5.8 million goal by $1 million.
The campaign hit the lower target, but one message was clear. Some donors who were interested in the orchestra turned their backs on the arts fund.
In short: The orchestra and the arts fund both lost. That's not to mention the loss to music lovers deprived of concerts, to musicians whose jobs vanished, and to creditors who weren't paid.
It doesn't take much imagination to see history repeating itself in Charlotte.
When the ASC decides on the orchestra's grant sometime after Aug. 31, the reduction might be as much $1.75 million – a 90 percent cut. That would equal nearly a quarter of the orchestra's budget this season. For the orchestra, closing that gap while contending with the recession's other blows would be a superhuman task.
Before lunchtime on the day the news of the cut first circulated, I received my first phone call reacting to it. A longtime symphony subscriber said he would never write another check to the ASC. Others echoed him.
Yet the ASC doesn't seem to see the danger.
In an op-ed piece in the Observer, ASC chair Donald Truslow gave the orchestra a little advice. “The surest path to sustainability is to engage a broad base of the market to buy tickets and donate,” he wrote. He wrote that the ASC's leaders are optimistic the orchestra will pull through.
“We believe the symphony significantly adds to the region's cultural vitality,” Truslow wrote in closing, “and look forward to a financially stable Charlotte Symphony.”
That's a weirdly serene view – especially considering how much the ASC has riding on this. Alienating music lovers who have checkbooks is the last thing the ASC needs. It has more than enough challenges already.
The recession has hit the ASC, too. Its 2009 campaign raised about $37million – 37 percent less than its 2008 drive.
It's an open secret that part of the ASC's previous success came from the pressure executives, especially in the banking and utility businesses, put on their underlings to make generous donations. The traumas in Charlotte's corporate world will take a toll on that.
Mecklenburg County government may let other charities come in alongside the ASC and United Way and aim workplace-giving drives at county employees. Donors could easily peel away from the ASC in favor of other causes.
The ASC probably wouldn't put it this way, but it has lit a fire under the Charlotte Symphony. The orchestra is hard at work trying to save itself. The risk of lighting fires, though, is that the flames can spread.
