Carolina On My Mind
Amid the sea of bad financial news enveloping the arts world, two happy items (both from North Carolina, coincidentally) stood out this week. First of all, it was announced today that our Ms. Hicks has added another orchestra to her business card - she's starting immediately as the new associate conductor of the Raleigh-Durham-based North Carolina Symphony! (No, that doesn't mean she's leaving Minnesota. In fact, you'll be seeing a lot of her at Orchestra Hall this season.) Presumably, this means lots more frequent flier miles for Sarah, and regular home delivery of fresh Carolina barbecue for me. Everybody wins!
On the other end of the state, the Charlotte Symphony's mood saw a potentially devastating budget situation turn bright at the last moment, in a stunning demonstration of just how generous and goodhearted people can be in a crisis. The orchestra, which has been fighting a growing deficit problem that began long before last fall's near-collapse of the financial system, was on the brink all summer, and the CSO's musicians just agreed to a whopping 20% pay cut last week. (If my math is correct, that means that their base salary will be something like $30,000 this year.) Still, no one knew whether it would be enough to stabilize the badly listing ship, and things turned even darker when the city's Arts & Sciences Council threatened to reduce the orchestra's annual stipend from nearly $2m to $150,000.
Then, out of the blue, on the same day that the Council told the orchestra that it could have as much as $900,000 if it met tough fundraising targets, two prominent Charlotte families stepped forward to pledge $1 million each to the CSO! It's a massive amount for an orchestra Charlotte's size (and really, it's massive for anyone - million-dollar donors don't grow on trees,) and while it won't solve all the orchestra's problems, it certainly puts them in a much more positive place heading into what everyone knew would be a very tough season. And at a time like this, that's about as good as good news gets...
On the other end of the state, the Charlotte Symphony's mood saw a potentially devastating budget situation turn bright at the last moment, in a stunning demonstration of just how generous and goodhearted people can be in a crisis. The orchestra, which has been fighting a growing deficit problem that began long before last fall's near-collapse of the financial system, was on the brink all summer, and the CSO's musicians just agreed to a whopping 20% pay cut last week. (If my math is correct, that means that their base salary will be something like $30,000 this year.) Still, no one knew whether it would be enough to stabilize the badly listing ship, and things turned even darker when the city's Arts & Sciences Council threatened to reduce the orchestra's annual stipend from nearly $2m to $150,000.
Then, out of the blue, on the same day that the Council told the orchestra that it could have as much as $900,000 if it met tough fundraising targets, two prominent Charlotte families stepped forward to pledge $1 million each to the CSO! It's a massive amount for an orchestra Charlotte's size (and really, it's massive for anyone - million-dollar donors don't grow on trees,) and while it won't solve all the orchestra's problems, it certainly puts them in a much more positive place heading into what everyone knew would be a very tough season. And at a time like this, that's about as good as good news gets...
Labels: $$$, the business of music
posted by Sam at
6:00 PM
3 Comments:
A heartfelt congratulations, Sarah! I cannot wait to see you at this season's Inside the Classics!
Congratulations to Sarah!
Congratulations, Sarah!
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