In Friday’s (8/10) Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Howard Pausner writes that the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra faces “increasingly dire finances” as it looks to begin its season on October 4. “The city’s largest cultural group, having run up $5 million annual deficits in recent years, is facing a daunting accumulated debt nearing $20 million. … Symphony management has resolved that the bleeding must stop and is amid increasing fractious contract negotiations with the committee representing its 93 musicians to replace the four-year agreement that expires Aug. 26. … ASO president Stanley Romanstein, brought in to confront the spiraling debt in 2010, acknowledged last week of negotiations, ‘I’m very disappointed that we have not made greater progress toward finding a solution to the significant challenges we face.’ … Daniel Laufer, president of the ASO Players Association, agrees that the orchestra is at serious crossroads. But he cautioned that the musicians are equally serious about protecting gains in the quality of the music-making and national esteem since music director Robert Spano arrived in 2001. … The orchestra’s revenues have grown at 4 percent a year over the last decade, but expenses have shot up by an average of 8 percent a year during the same period. … So management is turning to the musicians now for serious belt-tightening, [Romanstein] said, because, even with production and staff expense cuts during the past three years, it has been able to reduce its annual deficit only $1 million, from $6 million to $5 million.”
Posted August 10, 2012
