Symphony Money Woes Far From Over

In the wake of Monday’s optimistic announcement that the symphony was “back in business” with contributions totaling almost $1 million, questions remained about finance and the future.

While praising the ability of symphony association leaders in raising the money and putting together plans for a new season, some symphony officials acknowledged Tuesday that the organization “has a long way to go” before the new season can become a reality. And despite association plans that call for hundreds of thousands of dollars to be raised from “gift-givers” in the community, one board member revealed Tuesday that symphony fund-raisers in the past five months were unable to convince local patrons to give “major funds.”

Little more than a year ago, in March of 1986, the San Diego Symphony raised $2.2 million in a crisis campaign--and soon found itself more than $1 million in debt.

Now the association board hopes to clear the books of that old debt and plunge ahead into a new season.

Revenue Critical Factor

Is it deja vu , more of the same, or is the symphony, in Executive Director Wesley O. Brustad’s words, “back from the grave”?

Brustad declined to be interviewed on Tuesday, referring all calls to operations manager Lynda Sterns. She said the orchestra’s nearly $1-million in “start-up” contributions--from hotelier Judson R. Grosvenor, UC San Diego academician Roger Revelle and Rancho Santa Fe businessman Murray Hutchison--would be used to pay off the roughly $1 million in accumulated symphony association debt.

The symphony announced at Monday’s press conference that $700,000 is due season-ticket holders owed refunds from the 1986-87 winter campaign, which was canceled abruptly last November. An additional $300,000 is owed vendors and service personnel. Symphony officials Monday said they would use the contributions to pay off outstanding debts.

That leaves the association with no cash and a projected ‘87-88 budget of $5 million.

Where will the money come from?

Sterns said about $1.9 million--”a high-end estimate”--is expected from various philanthropic sources, such as the National Endowment for the Arts (a grant of $150,000), the California Arts Council and community “gift-givers.”

That leaves $3 million. Sterns acknowledged that’s “the critical figure.”

But she and others connected with the symphony were optimistic Tuesday that such money can and will be raised.

“It will come from tickets being purchased, (corporate) sponsorship of concerts, rental of the hall (to non-symphony events), the whole business end of the operation,” she said. “In other words, we expect to make that much in revenue. Once we start a subscription campaign, things will really pick up. I think we’re through the hardest part. We see the picture starting to really brighten. The feedback today has just been great.”

Element of Risk

Nevertheless, Grosvenor, who gave $250,000 in 1986 and this week pledged $450,000, called such a gift “risky--of course, it’s risky,” he said. “We’ve all got to be aware that a symphony orchestra is dependent on private funds. Only sources of private capital will give a symphony its survival and ensure its future.”

In agreement was Terry Churchill, an area vice president for Pacific Bell. Churchill is also a symphony board member and was recently named to the nominating committee to recruit new members. Churchill was optimistic Tuesday--with reservations.

“I am, but we have a long way to go before we’re out of the woods,” he said. “I now feel able to support, because I think critical business decisions that had to be made have been made.”

Churchill complimented the “fiscal abilities” of board president Herbert J. Solomon and Brustad, who say they’ve trimmed the operating budget $2.2 million from 1985-86, the orchestra’s last full, 45-week season. The cornerstone of this week’s agreement with symphony musicians is a 32-week season in ‘87-88, 37 weeks in ‘88-89.

“That was excellent,” Churchill said. “There’s (a limit) in San Diego as to how much symphony people can afford to go to. The (new) season is reasonable in length, the programming changes discussed by Brustad seem to constitute a more do-able format. Now we have one person in charge--Brustad--who’s got the business know-how to put together the missing ingredients.”

Churchill, who said he came on the board last fall at Solomon’s insistence, called the symphony revival “at this point, anything but a done deal. We just have the bare bones to see the light at the end of the tunnel.”

As a businessman, he believes $3 million a year can be raised in ticket sales, recording contracts, advertising, and by other related means.

“In previous years, the symphony’s operating budget was close to $8 million,” Churchill said. “They were going in the hole roughly $750,000 a year. Now we’ve got a plan to balance the budget, mainly by greatly reducing the expenses of the past. Herb got the banks to extend and reschedule the payments on the loans (a $500,000 operating loan and a $3.8-million capital loan). Without that, none of this would have happened.”

‘New Air of Reality’

He said the symphony board discussed dissolving itself about a week ago and filing for protection under Chapter 7 of the federal bankruptcy code. It dismissed that idea and decided to turn to its own members for help. The board had been given “a healthy dose of reality” by Mayor Maureen O’Connor’s appointee, William McGill, who tried to raise “major funds,” Churchill said, but couldn’t.

McGill, the former UC San Diego chancellor who stepped in to mediate the labor dispute, turned his attention to fund raising “and found there just wasn’t a magic angel out there,” Churchill said. “That’s the thing musicians had hoped for. When they realized it wasn’t there, that injected a new air of reality. It forced the board and the musicians to work hard, together, for the first time in months.”

Churchill credited Solomon with lining up all three major contributions--from Grosvenor, Revelle and Hutchison--and said that to credit McGill is “simply wrong.”

“The only person who deserves credit in this whole thing, who isn’t paid professionally (as Brustad is) is Herb Solomon,” Churchill said. “He worked incredibly hard. He just went out there and got the money.”

Both Solomon and McGill were unavailable for comment on Tuesday.

Churchill was asked why symphony musicians had spoken so critically of Solomon, who locked them out last November, precipitating two full seasons--winter and summer--of being without a contract. Many musicians have left for other orchestras. Some those who remain have called Solomon a “union buster.”

“I don’t think they despise him personally,” Churchill said. “Because of the process preceding Herb, there were lots of pent-up feelings. He had to take a hard line, initially--he had to be the one to tell them the money just wasn’t there. Nobody likes to be told that, so Herb became a symbol of all the pain, all the frustration, the musicians felt.”

Churchill said that Grosvenor’s contribution of $450,000 was almost nullified a week ago, when he came to Symphony Hall to offer his gift to the board. He saw musicians picketing outside and got upset by the “unkind remarks” scribbled on the signs. Solomon was the target.

“That almost blew it,” Churchill said. “They (the musicians) don’t know what Herb has done for them. He may have just saved the whole darned thing.”