“While contributions and ticket sale revenues reached an all-time high at the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in 2012, the boost was not enough to keep the orchestra from running an operating shortfall for the second year in a row, according to documents released at the organization’s annual meeting Wednesday and statements from CSO officials,” write Heather Gillers and John von Rhein in Wednesday’s (10/17) Chicago Tribune. “Gifts to support CSO operations increased to $28 million in 2012 from $25 million last year. Operating revenues—boosted mostly by an increase in CSO concert ticket sales and performance fees—rose to nearly $33 million from $27 million, helping the orchestra avoid an even bigger deficit. Running the CSO cost a total of about $73 million in 2012, about $8 million more than last year. But the organization reported an operating deficit of about $1.3 million, compared to its 2011 figure of $927,000. ‘While we have a strategic plan to address the imbalance in the growth of revenues and expenses, it will take some time to resolve,’ [CSO Association President Deborah] Rutter said.… The value of the CSO’s endowment, which fluctuates with investment returns, dropped to $233 million this year from $242 million in 2011. Pension funding levels also dropped, despite the organization’s upping its contribution to its two pension plans to almost $4.2 million this year from $3.3 million last year.… CSO board members also elected not to make several years of pension contributions in the early 2000s—after paying additional money into the fund in prior years…. Rutter said in a statement to the Tribune earlier this month that protecting the CSO’s ‘artistic standards and vision’ is the organization’s top priority.”
Posted October 19, 2012
