Here is my Wednesday October 19 suntimes.com and Thursday October 20, 2011 Chicago Sun-Times report on the October 19, 2011 annual meeting of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association.
CSO posts a deficit for last, unusual, season; but fiscal health is strong
BY ANDREW PATNER
For first time in five years, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra finds itself in the red.
At its annual meeting Wednesday afternoon, the CSO Association reported a deficit of $927,000 on operating expenses of $64.7 million for the fiscal year that ended June 30, an under the budget line of about 1.4 percent.
Riccardo Muti’s first season as CSO music director saw a record level of fund-raising success. But his two extended absences for illness, and an unprecedented number of cancellations by solo recitalists and an entire sold-out visit by the Cleveland Orchestra meant lost revenues that resulted in the CSO’s first deficit since 2006.
“We believe that it is very important not to try to hide any aspect of our circumstances,” CSO Association president Deborah F. Rutter said in a telephone interview Wednesday before the meeting at Symphony Center. “And we do so in the larger context of being individually and comparatively a very strong institution and facing a very good future.”
Rutter said there had been “tremendous momentum” when Muti arrived in Chicago 13 months ago, culminating in the huge success of a free CSO concert in Millennium Park attracting some 25,000 people. “That was reflected in a surge of subscription and single-ticket sales,” Rutter said. “Then some of that momentum stalled.”
The Millennium Park concert as well as another free concert in the Pilsen neighborhood also added to expenses. In addition, the cancellations of 10 recitalists impacted the bottom line. Among the artists bowing out due to illness were pianists Maurizio Pollini and Murray Perahia. Because of the February blizzard, the Cleveland Orchestra, under music director Franz Welser-Möst, had to call off its sold-out concert.
But fund-raising had a marked upswing with $24.2 million raised in annual gifts, a 15 percent increase over last year. Additional gifts of $1.4 million brought the association’s total fund-raising in all categories to some $25.6 million. Total assets increased by $32 million to $455 million.
“Some recovery in the economy and increased confidence in the business community meant we saw very nice increases in corporate donations,” Rutter said.
Even with the setbacks, ticket sales were up, including a 1 percent increase in subscription sales and a 17 percent increase in single ticket sales for a record $4.8 million. Ticket income for a all CSO and other Symphony Center presented events was $20.6 million. Additional earned income, such as that from touring and building rentals, was $6.6 million.
In the interview, Rutter said the reported and current season numbers indicate that “live concert music is thriving. Our challenge is to work with the different expectations for participation and experiencing music that today’s highly curious audiences have to keep up our mission for a very long time to come.”
Bass player Stephen Lester, chairman of the CSO players’ committee, told the gathering that this had been a year of “wild swings, tragedies and wonderful triumphs” for the orchestra. Through all of this, Muti has been not only "our great musical inspiration, constantly pushing us to improve,” he said, “but also shown himself to be a warm and caring human being with true insight and commitment to all of the communities we work with.”
After serving three years as CSO Association chairman, William A. Osborn, retired chairman and c.e.o. of Northern Trust, was reëlected to a final one-year term heading the organization, as was the full executive committee including Osborn's designated successor, Jay L. Henderson of PricewaterhouseCoopers. Mayor Rahm Emanuel was elected honorary co-chair of the board following his predecessor Richard M. Daley who will now serve as an honorary trustee along with his wife Maggie.
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