In Thursday’s (9/9) Philadelphia Inquirer, Peter Dobrin reports, “The Philadelphia Orchestra has received a $4.5 million pledge to its recovery efforts—the single largest vote of confidence to date in its still-evolving institutional vision. The award comes from the William Penn Foundation, which specifically cited the orchestra’s new leadership as an impetus and stipulated that the money be split into three separate allocations: $3 million will go directly to the orchestra’s emergency bridge fund, bringing to $13 million the total raised for the effort, which has a current goal of $15 million. William Penn will provide the full $528,000 cost of the orchestra’s strategic-planning process, now under way and expected to conclude around year’s end. An additional $1 million in William Penn money will help fund initiatives expected to emerge from the strategic-planning exercise. … William Penn president Feather O. Houstoun listed a number of reasons for the foundation’s decision. ‘They put an excellent leadership team in place; they are looking hard at what all the major orchestras around the country are doing and being very flexible about what the choices and alternatives might be,’ she said. ‘It is the … kind of attitude and energy and forward thinking that deserves support.’ ”
Posted September 9, 2010
