In Monday’s (9/10) Indianapolis Star, T.J. Banes reports, “The Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra is offering three options to patrons for concerts canceled over the next two weekends: receive a refund for the ticket price, get a credit toward another concert or make a donation to the symphony. The ISO decided to cancel a classical music performance, ‘Beethoven & Dvorak,’ originally scheduled for Friday and Saturday, and a pops concert, ‘TF3 & The ISO,’ scheduled for Sept. 21-23, because of ongoing contract negotiations. … [ISO spokeswoman Jessica] Di Santo declined to comment on the revenue lost by the ISO during the two weeks of cancellations, when the two parties will next meet for negotiations and how far apart the sides remain. … The musicians proposed a two-month contract extension at reduced pay in the hopes that the symphony could ‘play and talk’ until a new five-year agreement could be hammered out. However, in a news release, the ISO said, ‘The gap between what the musicians’ union is proposing and what is essential to economically sustain the ISO’s future is just too great. The union’s proposed extension would only exacerbate the … difficult financial challenges.’ … The ISO is saddled with $8 million in debt and facing a revenue shortfall of more than $11 million this year, according to previous reporting in The Star.”
Posted September 11, 2012
