PHILADELPHIA ORCHESTRA SEEKS FINANCIAL AID FOR SOVIET VISIT
The Philadelphia Orchestra has to raise money quickly or it may have to turn down an invitation to perform in the Soviet Union, orchestra officials say.
“I think, personally, it would be a big mistake, especially internationally, if we cannot go,” said music director Riccardo Muti.
The invitation, received Jan. 10, came under the resumption in cultural exchanges negotiated last November by President Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev. The exchanges had been stopped in 1979 after the Soviet Union intervened in Afghanistan.
The orchestra has not performed in the Soviet Union since 1958.
The orchestra was asked to make a 10-day visit to Moscow and Leningrad between May 1 and the middle of June, but the invitation did not include an offer of travel expenses, officials said.
The trip would clash with a scheduled tour to Canada and the West and Midwest, and Stephen Sell, orchestra executive director, said he needs between $500,000 and $800,000 in donations before he can seriously consider undoing or altering tour and musician vacation plans made more than a year ago.
He said the Soviet concert agency Gosconcert has been asked for alternative dates and help with expenses “but we haven’t heard anything yet.”
Muti said he will not put together a program for a Soviet tour until it is certain.
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