Budget woes force Symphony cuts

Jul 19, 2009

Author: Jim Kershner

Position: Staff Writer

Source: Spokesman Review

The Spokane Symphony has announced several cost-cutting moves to deal with its budget woes:

• The cancellation of next season’s Symphony on the Edge concerts. These are the informal concerts held at the Knitting Factory nightclub.
• The cancellations of the Chamber Soirees in Post Falls and one of the two Family Concerts.
• A 20 percent salary cut, in the form of a four-day workweek, for the administrative staff over the next four months. The 401(k) match will also be dropped. Even the two conductors, Music Director Eckart Preu and Resident Conductor Morihiko Nakahara, have agreed to cuts.
• A change in a previously announced soloist. The symphony’s own Mateusz Wolski will perform a Beethoven violin concerto in place of guest artist Philip Quint.
• Changes in the previously announced season’s repertoire, including Bruckner’s Symphony No. 4 in place of Stravinsky’s “Petrushka”; Mozart’s Concerto for Flute and Harp in place of Schoenberg’s “A Survivor From Warsaw”; Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4 instead of Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 10; Bizet’s “L’Arlesienne” instead of Janacek’s Sinfonietta; and Richard Strauss’ “Don Juan,” Wagner’s Venusberg music (Bacchanale) and Franck’s Symphony in D minor instead of the previously announced “Rivals and Prophets” program.
  These changes were made to save on music rental and extra musicians.

Details of other repertoire changes, including significant changes in the Casual Classics series, are available at www.spokanesymphony.org.

The recession has hit nonprofit arts organizations hard. The symphony ended the 2008-2009 season with a 5 percent budget deficit.

These changes were necessary to “achieve a balanced budget for 2009-10,” said Executive Director Brenda Nienhouse.