In Friday’s (5/7) Grand Rapids Press (Michigan), Jeffrey Kaczmarczyk reports, “Grand Rapids Symphony is on track to close its current fiscal year with a $65,000 surplus, an $830,000 turnaround from this time last season, when the orchestra was looking at a possible deficit of $765,000 at year’s end. The orchestra’s 2009-10 season doesn’t end until Aug. 31, and reaching that projection still depends on a successful Picnic Pops Series in July as well as continued fundraising through the summer. But officials at Thursday’s annual meeting of the Grand Rapids Symphony Society were happier than they were 12 months ago with the orchestra’s financial picture. ‘It’s on the correct side of the ledger. The numbers are black and not red,’ said symphony president Peter Kjome. … The Grand Rapids Symphony closed last year’s books at the end of August with a $493,000 shortfall against budgeted expenses of $8.7 million. The orchestra’s 80th season opened in September after a series of cuts in staff, salaries and benefits earlier in the year, followed by a new collective bargaining agreement with its musicians that also cut pay and benefits, all combining to lower budgeted expenses to $8.1 million for the current season.”
Posted May 7, 2010
