“To perform at the Spring for Music festival in New York City, the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra is hoping fans will spring for their wallets,” writes Elizabeth Bloom in Monday’s (1/13) Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. “The PSO today is launching its first campaign on crowd-funding website Kickstarter. Over the next 47 days, the symphony hopes to raise at least $30,000 to support its participation in the festival, which takes place in May at New York’s Carnegie Hall…. PSO officials thought Spring for Music would be an ideal time to experiment with Kickstarter, as the campaign would showcase hometown support for the orchestra at a festival that presents groups from across the continent…. Last year, the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra successfully raised more than $13,000 to support digitization of its archives, and the Nashville Symphony pocketed over $15,000 to record an album of music by Joan Tower. As with all Kickstarter campaigns, the PSO will receive funding only if it reaches its target amount.… Fans who fork over $5,000 will be able to meet [music director Manfred] Honeck and [actor F. Murray] Abraham, who played Antonio Salieri in ‘Amadeus,’ following the concert. Mr. Abraham will be the speaker in the PSO’s performance of ‘Mozart’s Death in Words and Music,’ an arrangement of the composer’s ‘Requiem’ by Mr. Honeck.” To read Jayson Greene’s feature article about orchestras and crowdfunding in the Winter 2012 issue of Symphony, click here.
Posted January 14, 2014
