So much so that the current four-concert season may be reduced to three, and next year’s season is in doubt, according to officers of the Sierra Vista Symphony Association.
Being $30,000 in the hole, the association’s leaders know each additional concert, which includes rehearsal time, will create a larger well of red ink, making it difficult to climb out of the deficit.
 The Sierra Vista Symphony, under the direction of Roger Bayes, is feeling the impact of the slower financial times and is considering how it might react. The symphony has a deficit of $30,000. (Ed Honda-Herald/Review) |
The association’s board met with community leaders Monday night, seeking both moral and financial support.
The directors have decided that what was going to be the symphony’s fourth musical event on April 3, the popular and generally well-attended pops concert, will instead be the third event of the season taking place on Jan. 23.
The original January concert, “Going for Baroque,” is now tentatively scheduled to be performed on April 3.
As for next year, Bruce Dockter, the association’s board’s vice president, said, “We don’t even want to think about not having a season next year, and the fourth concert this year is in jeopardy.”
The symphony’s season runs from the fall to the spring.
Roger Bayes, the orchestra’s music director and conductor, described the reason for switching the third and fourth concerts.
“The annual pops concert is financially lucrative,” he said.
But Bayes, along with Dockter and other association directors, knows this year’s pops concert won’t solve everything.
Dockter called the orchestra “one of the premier cultural events in this town due to its excellent musicians.”
But the number of people attending the concerts has been going down, so much so that the audience only fills about a third of the Buena High School Performing Arts Center, which can seat more than 1,300 people when full.
And with the recession being felt nationwide, “that means we will have fewer winter visitors this year,” Dockter said.
The cost of concert tickets was discussed, and Dockter said the board is reviewing it. But, he said, that will only be part of addressing the financial problems the symphony faces.
Dockter said the directors understand financial problems is affecting many nonprofits nationwide, and the upcoming holiday season will be especially bleak because people will be looking at issues close to home.
Jim Finley, the association’s treasurer, said the musicians are paid various amounts based on the instrument they play and whether they are a principal or first chair of a section.
In January, the orchestra will be providing seven services. Four of those services are rehearsals, one an evening concert and two day concerts for area schoolchildren.
Those seven services means an instrumentalist will be provided anywhere from a low of $490 to a high of $630, Finley said. That equates to payment of $70 to $90 per session. Bayes’ salary as music director and conductor for the seven sessions would be less than $1,000.
As for the scale of pay, the amount of pay orchestra members receive is not substantial when taking into account that many members of the orchestra drive to Sierra Vista from Tucson to perform, Finley said.
This is the 14th year of Sierra Vista Symphony concerts, and about 30 percent of the musicians are from the Tucson area.
Besides paying the musicians, the association has to pay rent for use of the high school auditorium. For the January events, it will cost about $2,200 for the evening concert, two children’s concerts and rehearsals, Finley said. There also is a cost of renting or purchasing the music.
The estimated cost for the January rehearsals and concerts is about $36,000, of which $14,800 is a grant provided by the Tohono O’odham Tribe for the two children’s concerts, Finley said. That leaves more than $21,000, which is about a 10th of the association’s annual budget of $210,000, that is needed.
Board President Terry Bowmaster said the association is not just figuratively standing on the street corner with hats in hand seeking donations.
Many orchestra members are willing to forgo their salaries or a portion of their pay for the rest of the season, to help put on concerts, including Bayes, Bowmaster said.
That the orchestra members and some other salaried association members are willing to give up their pay speaks well to the dedication in providing music to the community, Bowmaster said.
“We are in serious financial straits, but none of us want to see the orchestra go under,” he said.
Herald/Review senior reporter Bill Hess can be reached at 515-4615 or by e-mail at bill.hess@svherald.com.
About the symphony
The Sierra Vista Symphony was founded in 1995 and currently has 58 musicians.
It initially performed two concerts per season, and that has grown to four.
The yearly attendance grew from about 600 to more than 2,500, but this year there has been a reduction in the number of people attending concerts, with fewer than 1,000 attending the first two concerts this season.
The orchestra’s annual budget is $210,000, but membership revenues have fallen 47 percent from last year’s season.
The orchestra has a $30,000 deficit with two concerts still planned.
To donate to the organization, send checks made payable to the Sierra Vista Symphony Association in care of the Sierra Vista Symphony Association, P.O. Box 895, Sierra Vista AZ 85636.
For information or to provide suggestions or comments, write to the association or call Dick Andersen at 458-5189.
Source: Sierra Vista Symphony Association Board of Directors
