In Monday’s (3/9) Grand Rapids Press (Michigan), Jeff Kaczmarczyk reports, “The Grand Rapids Symphony, in an effort to cut costs and balance its budget, has imposed salary reductions of 3 percent for most of its administrative staff, and 5 percent for its senior staff for the remainder of its current fiscal year. Music director David Lockington and associate conductor John Varineau have volunteered to take the same 5 percent pay cut that the orchestra’s president and four vice presidents will take. The orchestra’s musicians, who work under a collective bargaining contract, are not subject to the cutbacks that took effect last week.” President and CEO Peter Kjome called the cuts initial steps to further cost-saving measures for the orchestra, which “began the season in September with an $8.6 million budget and a goal of raising just over $2 million through its annual fund. … Halfway through the current fiscal year, revenue from ticket sales and donations are slightly ahead of last year’s mid-season levels. But they’re behind goals set months before the fiscal year began.”
Posted March 11, 2009
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