“Despite a busy concert schedule, with the MSO playing for 220,000 people last calendar year, it posted an $800,000 deficit which it attributed to costs associated with the renovations of its main venue, Hamer Hall,” writes Michaela Boland in Monday’s (8/19) The Australian. “ ‘We are having board discussions right now in the context of government funding being flat and in some cases decreasing,’ [Managing Director Andre] Gremillet says. He scotched rumours he is seeking to alter the orchestra’s constitution so that all board members will be required to give $50,000 a year. ‘Our board has been extremely generous (but) we are talking about raising the expectations of them going forward,’ he says…. Before arriving in Melbourne last November Gremillet worked in the U.S., most recently as chief executive and president of the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra from 2007. American orchestras are more reliant than Australian ones on philanthropic support.” A separate article in Wednesday’s (8/21) The Age (Melbourne, Australia) covers details of the MSO’s upcoming season under Chief Conductor Andrew Davis.
Posted August 21, 2013
