In photo: The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and Music Director Manfred Honeck.
“After nearly four years of strong fundraising, increasing subscriptions and unprecedented artistic accolades, the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra was poised to deliver an exceptional 125th anniversary season beginning in the fall,” writes Jeremy Reynolds in Monday’s (4/27) Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. “Then a global pandemic struck. The symphony on Monday announced salary reductions for top executives and musicians in combination with further concert cancellations and postponements due to COVID-19…. ‘Musicians have volunteered the reductions that we’re implementing,’ said PSO President and CEO Melia Tourangeau.… The Pittsburgh Symphony received a $4.5 million Payment Protection Program loan from the federal government to shore up payroll and necessary expenses…. At the end of the loan period at the end of June, additional salary reductions will be implemented…. The organization … is aiming to save $1 million between now and the end of August, the end of the fiscal year for the orchestra. ‘Obviously all our budgeted numbers are obsolete at this point, so we’re looking at this strictly on a cash in and out basis,’ Ms. Tourangeau said…. ‘Of course nobody is happy about this, but we’re trying to retain jobs,’ Ms. Tourangeau said. ’We’re fighting for the future of the organization.’ ”
