Or, alternatively, I could title this post “Another One Bites The Dust.” Whatever, I’m bloody tired of writing these kind of blog posts but it has to be done. Let’s talk Syracuse.
Usually when you attend a 50th birthday celebration you leave happy and with a good hangover. This year the Syracuse Symphony is celebrating 50 years and…… looks like some Grecian Formula and a good dose of Viagra (Music Edition) is necessary. Suspended for the rest of the season, including a sold-out concert with Yo-Yo. Why? It’s the same old reasons.
The two pertinent numbers are: $6.9 Million and $5.5 Million. The first number is the budget of the SSO for this current season. The second number is the accumulated debt that the SSO is carrying. Rounding up, this means that the SSO is carrying a debt equal to 80% of the yearly budget. There are other numbers that would be major sources of concern (if the figures are correct attendance has dropped by more than 50% over the past 3 years – not good) but we live in a capitalist society. It’s the fiscal numbers that have the greatest impact.
It would be easy to get up on a high horse and throw a lot of blame around at everyone involved with the SSO. After all, putting together a fiscal plan that leaves you with a debt-to-budget ratio of 80% means that no one – Musicians, Board, Administration, Local Leaders – was really grasping the dynamics of the situation. However, there is another factor which Im sure contributed to this particular mess.
At my orchestra in Edmonton we are looking at an starting to budget for the year 2012-13. This year our budget is c. $9.5 Million. The challenge is to project a full year and a half into the future and predict what the economic situation will be at that time, what people will want to hear, how much they’ll be willing to spend for it, and how much it’s going to cost our institution. Actually, the “how much it’s going to cost our institution” part is probably the easiest part of that equation. The rest borders on blind guesswork.
Yet this is how our industry functions. We have to plan that far out, and several orchestras I know are already looking at 13-14 as we speak. Opera companies? The big ones are in 14-15 as we speak. Planning ahead can be good. Being caught in a cycle of unpalatable fiscal choices because you have to plan ahead can be really, really bad. My best guess is that the SSO found themselves so far down the hole over a long period of time that the cumulative weight became more than the institution could bear.
Hindsight is, of course 20/20. Planning ahead is a crapshoot. Looks like the SSO just crapped out.
Thank you for this! I met your parents about 15 years, when I rented their place in Chautauqua. They were quite proud indeed. I spoke to your father last after you won the Seaver Prize in 2000. Are they still alive and well.