In Thursday’s (6/23) Post-Standard (Syracuse, New York), Michelle Breidenbach writes, “In the math of bankruptcy court, the case of Syracuse Symphony Orchestra Inc. seems easy enough. The folded symphony has $327,000 worth of stuff and $4 million in liabilities. M&T Bank, the biggest secured creditor, is likely to get everything, leaving nothing for the hundreds of unpaid vendors and staff and people who bought concert tickets they could not use. … In the court, Philip MacArthur and Bill Harris were thinking about how to keep the SSO’s library of sheet music. They are musicians, MacArthur on the oboe, and Harris, on the trombone, who retired and now lead the union that represents the musicians’ contract with the SSO. … A stopwatch is ticking on the future of the sheet music, as well as the $55,000 Steinway piano, a $12,000 celeste piano and $40,000 in drums, chimes, cymbals and other percussion instruments. … It is possible for the bank to sell the music library and instruments together to a new start-up orchestra here. So far, however, the unemployed musicians who played for the old SSO are in no position to buy the tools of their trade back from the bank. … The former SSO musicians filed the paperwork to form a new group called Symphony Syracuse and announced eight concerts for a summer season, including the traditional July 4 concert at the New York State Fairgrounds.”
Posted June 27, 2011
