LONG BEACH SYMPHONY : SILENCE FROM LONG BEACH SYMPHONY

There is anger in musical--and non-musical--Long Beach. And there is silence for the Long Beach Symphony in what was supposed to be its golden anniversary season.

The reason: continuing financial problems plaguing the 50-year-old orchestra, ranked artistically by some observers as second only to the Los Angeles Philharmonic in this county. It is a situation that has raised basic questions about what an orchestra should be.

The latest financial crisis peaked Nov. 13, when the board of directors of the Long Beach Symphony Assn., after only two concerts--opening the season--canceled the remainder of the 1984-85 schedule. This was an attempt to stem the accumulated deficit, which now totals, according to Gordon Lentzner, symphony association treasurer, more than $540,000.

Only two years ago this month, 20 members of the board personally assumed association debts of $368,000 in order to save the orchestra. At that time, the deficit stood at more than $850,000.

Cancellation of the current projected $1.1 million season put the 84 players in the orchestra out of work. They would have been involved in at least 20 subscription and nonsubscription concerts; it also puts the 1985-86 season in doubt.

Another effect has been action by the Long Beach City Council, which granted an interest-free loan of $175,000 to the orchestra at the time of the orchestra’s Save Our Symphony campaign in 1983. The council is about to appoint a “blue-ribbon” committee “to assess the symphony situation.” On Dec. 18, the council pushed back to April, 1986, the scheduled first payment on its loan to the orchestra.

Detractors of music director Murry Sidlin, the Baltimore-born conductor who has led the Long Beach orchestra since 1980, say Sidlin has “forced” artistic and financial growth on the orchestra and its board of directors. None of the individuals critical of Sidlin, however, would speak for the record.

Other observers point out that increases in the length of the orchestra’s season occurred before Sidlin arrived; indeed, that the season was reduced from eight concert-pairs to seven, and even more in the restructured 1983-84 season, of which Sidlin says he and then-manager Dan Pavillard were the architects.

Comment in the local newspaper, the Press-Telegram, has not been limited to merely publishing some of the letters on the controversial subject. The newspaper has also run editorials advising the orchestra’s leaders.

One editorial, published Dec. 9, gave six possible courses of action:

Cut the orchestra’s budget and accept a more modest program . . .

Consider cutting back for a year or two--perhaps to seasons in which the full orchestra plays only pops concerts at the Terrace Theater while smaller ensembles perform for small audiences in smaller halls.

Reduce the orchestra to a chamber orchestra . . .

Restrict the orchestra to two or three concerts for a season or two . . .

Consider mergers with other orchestras . . .

Develop a clear plan for community activities. . . .

Sidlin is angry and, he says, frustrated.

“What is a committee of strangers going to tell us that we don’t already know?” Sidlin asks on the phone from his home in New Haven, Conn., where he also leads the New Haven Symphony. “From what I hear, only the symphony board is working on solving our financial problems. The rest of the community seems to be engaged in a debate about whether we should exist or not.

“This is nonsense. We are being criticized on artistic grounds, when the artistic component is the one place where we are successful.”

Councilwoman Eunice Sato, whose experience in dealing with what she called “the symphony situation” goes back to the time (1980-82) when she was mayor of Long Beach, says, “I am very unhappy with them (the symphony board).

“I think they have been irresponsible. They say they are going to pay off the deficit, but they haven’t done so up to now. They say they are going to raise the money, but they haven’t.”

In her large office on the 14th floor of City Hall, overlooking the Long Beach-Los Angeles harbors, Sato leans forward and lowers her voice, not to whisper a confidence, but to make a point: “They’re like children. They’re dreamers.”

“We had no choice,” says James Feichtmann, general manager of the symphony association, about the need to cancel the season. It was the second time the symphony has had to resort to canceling performances--in January, 1983, a pair of subscription concerts were dropped to curb rising debts.

Canceling the current season meant the loss of 14 subscription concerts, a series of in-school events called Kinderkonzerts and four Boston Pops-style performances scheduled in the Long Beach Arena between April and July of this year were called off.

“We were doing just fine in meeting our current obligations,” Feichtmann says. “The city auditor even told us we were in good shape. Except--we just couldn’t seem to make a dent in our deficit while performing.”

The immediate cause of the crisis was the seizing of $18,000 in back taxes by the Internal Revenue Service in November, which left the organization with no cash on hand. Feichtmann and treasurer Lentzner both say that the seizure occurred when a regular tax payment check did not reach the IRS on time.

Lentzner adds that, although the crisis is continuing--”Any time an orchestra isn’t performing, that’s a crisis”--the association stands in good stead with the IRS, and that there are at present no legal actions against the symphony.

“Our creditors have been exceptionally patient,” says Robert W. Porter, president of the symphony board. “Our purpose now is to raise the funds so that we can pay back our obligations--other than the city loan--within the next two years.”

The orchestra’s first financial crisis of recent times hit during the 1973-74 season, when the deficit reached $20,000, according to Patricia Bowles, a graduate student at Cal State Long Beach who recently wrote a history of the orchestra for her master’s thesis.

Bowles gives credit for the elimination of that deficit to then-manager Doris Stovall, who campaigned for and won an increased donation to the orchestra from the City of Long Beach, among others.

Stovall’s successor, John Hyer, now manager of the New Jersey Symphony, presided over the Long Beach orchestra’s fortunes in the crucial period surrounding its move into the new Terrace Theater at the Long Beach Convention Center in January, 1978.

According to Bowles’ thesis, the move into Terrace Theater marked the largest increase in the symphony’s deficit: from $45,707 for the season ending June 30, 1978, to $244,108 at the end of the 1978-79 season.

Bowles sees great irony in the fact that city donations to the symphony, which had been annual and regular since 1940, stopped after the 1975-76 season, never to resume, aside from the loan granted in 1983. During the same period, 1976-1985, the city’s allocation to its 75-year old Municipal Band--which in 1984-85 has a payroll of more than $179,000--continued, uninterrupted.

Since June 30, 1979, and despite artistic successes and growth under new music director Sidlin--and a growing number of symphony subscribers, an increase in private donations, the corporate sponsorship of orchestral activities and grants from county, state and federal agencies--the deficit at no point has decreased below that amount (see chart at left).

Treasurer Lentzner outlines the components of the deficit.

“First, we have some $250,000 in accounts payable. Then, there is an unsecured loan with Bank of America for $115,000. Finally, there is the $175,000 loan from the city.”

“We have cut our administrative personnel from eight people to three,” Feichtmann says. “The manager (myself), the finance director and the director of development. To fill in the gap, a surprising number of volunteers have materialized, people from our board of directors, other orchestra patrons, even members of the orchestra. All of them keep the office going.”

Feichtmann says fund raising to pay off the deficit will be concentrated on several events to take place this spring.

First, there is the “Crescendo” dinner and auction, scheduled for Feb. 9 under the dome of the Spruce Goose.

“Last spring, this event raised $110,000 for us. This year, with increased donations of goods and services to be sold at the live and silent auctions, we project a possible net of $150,000,” Feichtmann says.

In addition, Feichtmann promises other fund-raisers, among them a benefit concert, a “sweepstakes vehicle” and “a restaurant opening.” He says he has no details to announce, as yet.

Treasurer Lentzner agrees that the orchestra’s major financial problems began with the move into Terrace Theater.

“It was the cart before the horse syndrome,” he said. “Suddenly we had this major facility, a beautiful auditorium, and nothing to put in it but our little Civic Light Opera and our community orchestra.”

The orchestra grew in artistic stature, Lentzner acknowledges, and is now “an ensemble--an ongoing ensemble, not a pickup group as it used to be--we can be proud of. But it takes a lot of money to keep the organization going.”

And it also takes, Lentzner said, “re-educating the community to the need to have an orchestra in our city as a cultural resource. And to the community services, in terms of providing concerts for senior citizens and for schoolchildren, the orchestra can also provide.

Councilwoman Sato characterizes herself as a public servant interested in culture, “since that marks the difference between animals and humans.” But, she says, the Symphony Assn. “has not been fiscally responsible.” Indeed, she accuses the association of “putting up fences” when Sato, as mayor, tried to form a consortium of Long Beach arts organizations to share fund raising.

“The question is: Can we afford a top-rate symphony?” Sato states, with some passion. “After all, we are a city of only 365,000. We’re not Los Angeles. . . .

“Maybe we’re going to have to share the cost, say, with Cerritos, or Downey. Maybe we’re going to have to change the name of the orchestra, in order for it to survive. Perhaps there aren’t enough people in Long Beach interested in that kind of music.”

Sato contends that board members “have not been asking the critical questions. What about this Sidlin? He lives in Connecticut. Now, why do we have to have a conductor come all the way from Connecticut? Who pays for his plane trips? And aren’t there conductors just as good in Oregon or Washington or California?”

Sidlin, who receives what he calls “a limited travel allotment, as do most commuting directors,” claims also to have conducted “thousands of dollars’ worth of concerts--pops concerts, children’s concerts, runout (repeat concerts in new locations) concerts, Baroque concerts--without payment.”

But at this time, Sidlin continues, “I am really confused and frustrated. At a time when people should be coming forward to support the orchestra in its financial problems, we are being attacked on the artistic front.

“This doesn’t make any sense at all. I read in the local newspaper that we rehearse too much, we play too often, the orchestra is too large. It is being suggested that we play a whole year of pops concerts to put ourselves on a good financial footing.”

It has also been suggested, Sidlin adds, “that we mix our professional players with students from Cal State Long Beach to save money.

“None of this has anything to do with the artistic standard we have set and, to a great degree, achieved. When I came to this job, the board, I thought, gave me a mandate to create the best possible orchestra. Merely in terms of continuity of personnel, we have done that,” he says, noting that at one point between concerts the symphony experienced a 40% change in personnel.

Sidlin says he finds “particularly galling the criticism implicit in all this advice that we are not good. Now, I take great, vehement exception to that.

“In all of the financial and personnel cutbacks that I, first with (former manager) Dan Pavillard, then with Jim Feichtmann, instituted, we have been careful not to compromise artistic integrity. Now, we are being told by outsiders that we should reduce the size of the orchestra.”

Sidlin agrees with some critics, however, that the symphony has a long way to go to reinstate its credibility. “If I were a music lover wanting to hear this orchestra, I would buy only single tickets. We’ve canceled a lot of concerts. We’ve rescheduled concerts. We’ve changed programs. We’ve canceled soloists. When we come back, we will have to prove our stability.

“But a proposed budget of $1.2 million, which we project for the 1985-86 season, after we have passed through the current crisis, is not a lot of money--not in relation to sports events or rock concerts. People don’t think twice about spending amounts that large on rock bands.”