In Sunday’s (6/10) Denver Post, Ray Mark Rinaldi writes, “When Jerry Kern decided to place his bet on the survival of the Colorado Symphony Orchestra he knew it was going to cost him. And it has: more than $125,000 from his own pocket since September, when he marched into the mess the organization had become. But by most accounts he has won the wager. Kern’s move led a communitywide round of giving and ticket buying that will leave the CSO in the black when its 2011-12 season ends today. That’s a quick turnaround from last year’s $1.3 million deficit. … Kern, along with new chief executive Gene Sobczak (an organization veteran, recruited back from the Arvada Center) has pulled off the kind of short-term miracle the troubled classical music industry dreams about. ‘What you hope to do is reverse the perception that you’ve been struggling at death’s door,’ said Jesse Rosen, who leads the League of American Orchestras. … [Musicians] agreed to another in a series of pay cuts and contract concessions. … The CSO has other challenges and they are intertwined. Looming large is the problem of remaking city-owned Boettcher Concert Hall, its 2,300-seat home, plagued by subpar acoustics and a design that dates, unfavorably, back to 1978. … Finally, the orchestra is yet to name a new artistic director to replace its last conductor, Jeffrey Kahane, who announced his resignation four years ago.”
Posted June 11, 2012
