“This weekend marks a return to business as usual for the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra,” writes Elizabeth Bloom in Thursday’s (1/12) Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. “Although it has given a handful of concerts since the musicians’ strike ended in November, the PSO will perform a program from its core classical series for the first time since last spring…. The orchestra’s administration says that the musicians’ wage concession is worth $3.6 million over the life of the contract, but it believes it will have to raise several times that amount to overcome its financial challenges…. The PSO has slimmed down its already lean administrative staff…. [President and CEO Melia] Tourangeau … has taken a 10.5 percent pay cut…. While the orchestra’s annual fund has grown in recent years, it also has overly depended on local foundations and former board chairman Dick Simmons, said an independent analysis of the symphony’s finances…. The organization plans to launch a fundraising campaign soon…. ‘It can’t be a message of entitlement,’ [Tourangeau said]. ‘It has to be a message of we, the Pittsburgh Symphony, want the community to own its orchestra and love it.’ … The organization has raised $300,000 more than it had by this time last year.”
Posted January 13, 2017
Pictured: Music Director Manfred Honeck conducts the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. Photo by Kai Bienert
