Adagio for Strings

In retrospect, we should have seen it coming.  It was a clue when, at one of the last concerts last spring, the musicians were out in the corridors, handing out postcards to symphony goers as we were on our way to our seats.  The cards invited us to follow them on Facebook and Twitter.  I and 1,731 other people now "Like" them on Facebook.  Not that it's done them any good -- in a nasty and public dispute with Symphony and Woodward Arts Center management, they are now locked out and their health benefits were ended on August 31.

The Symphony is posting their point of view on Facebook too.  Yesterday they posted an interview ASO President Stanley Romanstein had given to the Atlanta Business Chronicle.  “We are in the same position that the auto industry and the airline industry were in a few years ago. It is time for a restructuring of the industry.”

I cringed when I saw that yesterday.  It seemed so wrong, equating our wonderful symphony orchestra with General Motors, as if it all were about balancing the books.  

But even though it's not just about balancing the books, the fact remains that the books have to be balanced.   Romanstein was interviewed in a long article in today's Atlanta Journal-Constitution, where he "said the ASO can't raise more money through donations until it balances its budget.  Donors have made it clear, he said:  Fix the finances, then talk to us about increasing our support."

There are only 17 orchestras with full-time musicians in the United States, and last week one of them, Indianapolis, announced plans to go downsize to a part-time orchestra.  The AJC this morning listed 5 other American symphony orchestras with serious financial problems.  In 2010, the Honolulu Symphony was dissolved in bankruptcy proceedings.  In 2011 the Philadelphia Orchestra filed for bankruptcy protection under Chapter 11, and the Syracuse Symphony filed under Chapter 7.  The Detroit Symphony Orchestra has taken pay cuts, become smaller, and reduced work weeks from 52 to 40.  The story is similar for the Louisville Orchestra, which is down from 71 to 51 permanent players and the season was cut from 37 weeks to 30.

I lived in Nashville in 1988 when the symphony declared bankruptcy.  I remember listening to Samuel Barber's Adagio for Strings in the old performing arts center, at the benefit concert the musicians held after the bankruptcy.  As I understand it, bankruptcy isn't likely for the ASO, because they aren't an independent entity, as far as the books are concerned; they are part of Woodruff Arts Center, and in spite of the orchestra's $20 million deficit, the Arts Center isn't bankrupt.

But the Arts Center is demanding that the budget be balanced.  According to the AJC, Woodruff President Virginia Hepner said that the Arts Center "did not dictate how the ASO was to balance its budget.  'At the end of the day, all we have said is, "This is where we need to get to.  Let me know how you're going to get there."'"

Every time I hear the Adagio for Strings I remember how I felt that night, worried about the musicians, the symphony, the city.  But  the Nashville Symphony did survive.  They emerged from bankruptcy in 1995 and in 2006 they moved into a new concert hall.  I think the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra will survive this, too, but it's not going to get sorted out on Facebook.