In Sunday’s (10/7) Buffalo News (New York), Mary Kunz Goldman writes, “How do you keep the music playing? This fall, a lot of American orchestras are finding it tough. … In the midst of this dissonance, the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra plays on. The group released its annual report last month, and the outlook is as bright as a Mozart minuet. The 2011 fiscal year ended with a balanced budget. The BPO has a cumulative debt of $2.5 million, but that is modest by industry standards. JoAnn Falletta, the BPO’s popular music director, is one year into a five-year contract. The musicians have a contract that will see them through to the year 2016. Ticket sales, which account for a third of the budget, are at an all-time high. Subscriptions are too. The endowment fund, reported at $25 million last year, has risen to $26 million. But BPO officials caution that they can’t become complacent. ‘It’s never going to be easy,’ said Executive Director Dan Hart. … The BPO is going to New York in the spring to perform in Carnegie Hall’s ‘Spring of Music’ festival. … This fall brings a new series called ‘Know the Score,’ informal shorter concerts that include a talk. Falletta debuts this series on Thursday, presiding over a concert featuring Rimsky-Korsakov’s ‘Scheherazade.’ ”
Posted October 11, 2012
