From the May 10, 2009 edition of The Charlotte Observer
By Mark Price
Posted : May 11, 2009
The Leon Levine Foundation has committed to giving $25,000 to the financially strapped Charlotte Symphony.
Foundation board members learned of the symphony’s urgent cost-cutting in a story in Friday’s Observer, including a request that players renegotiate the contract governing their pay and benefits.
The money will help the symphony cover the bills, said Jonathan Martin, the organization’s president and executive director for the past year.
But it means much more than that, he said.
“It also has significant affirmational value as we make our case directly to the community right now about the value the Charlotte Symphony can add to the community,” Martin said.
The symphony is also hoping to cut administrative costs by $250,000 through staff layoffs, furloughs and other measures beginning this week, officials said.
The Observer story noted a fundraising effort is also being launched by the symphony, which is what inspired Sandra and Leon Levine to kick in an early $25,000 gift.
“Mr. Levine felt it was too important of an asset to the city’s cultural landscape,” said Tom Lawrence, vice president of the foundation. “After reading about the challenges the symphony is going through, the foundation felt something had to be done to spur people to give.”
The $25,000 will come in the form of an unrestricted grant, he said. It represents the largest donation to the symphony by the foundation.
The orchestra, which has had a deficit each year since 2002-03, will have another one this season. It expects revenue to fall about $780,000 short of its expenses of $8.7 million.
According to the League of American Orchestras, at least eight cities have had their orchestras fold because of financial problems since 2002, including those in Miami, San Jose, Calif., and Savannah, Ga., The Columbus Dispatch reported.
