“The Cleveland Orchestra is launching a public campaign to raise $6 million to help fill a multimillion-dollar budget hole brought on by the coronavirus and concert cancellations this spring,” writes Marc Bona in Tuesday’s (4/21) Cleveland.com. “The venerable Cleveland cultural institution is taking drastic steps to slash expenses, too, instituting more than $3 million in temporary wage cuts and layoffs. The orchestra has also applied for a loan through the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act.… Orchestra trustees already have pledged $3 million…. Cutbacks will affect 90 percent of the orchestra’s 230 employees, including staff and musicians…. Only those who earn less than $50,000 a year will be spared.… [Remaining] working staff are taking 10 percent pay cuts in April and May and 15 percent cuts from June to the end of September.… Temporarily laid-off staff … are collecting unemployment as well as the additional weekly $600 from the Covid-19 unemployment benefit, and will be hired back in June…. All employees will keep their healthcare benefits.” The orchestra plans to announce whether it will go forward with this summer’s Blossom Music Festival by May 15, said President and CEO André Gremillet.
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