“A slimmed-down Riverside County Philharmonic will open its 55th season Saturday as its leaders dig out from debt,” reports Fielding Buck in Friday’s (9/5) Orange County Register (California). “Saturday’s concert had been scheduled to end the orchestra’s 2013-2014 season on May 3 but was postponed to end a downward financial spiral. It will take place as originally programmed, with pieces by Brahms and Sibelius as well as [a] world premiere.… ‘We still have a lot of work to do, but we have made some major changes to the way the Philharmonic does business as an organization,’ Joseph Telezinski, president of the orchestra’s board of directors, said.… The orchestra saw a huge drop in revenue in the economic downturn of 2008 and 2009 and has been struggling to keep up with expenses.… The board has spent the past year cutting revenue projections and expenses, Executive Director Barbara Lohman said. The Philharmonic had been ‘using future revenue to meet current operations,’ Lohman said … [which] created shortfalls when ticket sales didn’t meet the cost of paying the orchestra.… Now the Philharmonic is putting its season ticket revenues into escrow with Live Nation, which operates the Philharmonic’s home venue, the Fox Performing Arts Center.”
Posted September 8, 2014
