“The 87-year-old Schenectady Symphony Orchestra will come under the wing of Proctors Collaborative as part of a new agreement,” writes Steve Barnes in Tuesday’s (7/26) Times Union (Albany, NY). “The arrangement calls for Proctors [performing arts center and cultural anchor in Schenectady] to provide the SSO with a variety of administrative services and other support…. The orchestra will remain artistically independent, with its own board of directors and status as a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit. It is similar to the relationship Proctors has had with other affiliates including Capital Repertory Theatre in Albany since 2011 and Universal Preservation Hall in Saratoga Springs for the past seven years. Both organizations have said the association with Proctors has been essential to their financial stability. Bob Bour, president of the symphony’s board of directors for the past 15 years, said the immediate catalyst for the change was the departure last fall of the company’s part-time executive director. ‘Finding a new, part-time executive director who could do everything we asked of that person was going to be impossible,’ said Bour.… The orchestra … has a paid staff of two—Glen Cortese, the artistic director and conductor since 2019, and a music librarian—and pays its musicians.”
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