POPS TO MEET MUSICIAN PAYROLL DESPITE SHORTFALL
The San Diego Philharmonic will meet its first Summer Pops orchestra payroll this weekend despite a $7,000 shortfall the first week of concerts, an official said this week.
“We’re going ahead, no matter what,” philharmonic General Manager Lee Ellen Hveem said. “We’ve got enough to pay the orchestra’s first payroll.”
The pops, organized and run this summer by the musicians of the San Diego Symphony, opened a nine-week season July 8 under the philharmonic’s nonprofit banner.
But the first week’s biggest attendance--62% of seating Saturday night--troubled Hveem. “Sixty-two percent should be our average. But it was our high.”
A key problem was the 30% renewal rate by subscribers, compared to the 80% renewal in 1986. “I had thought perhaps we would have a 50% renewal,” Hveem said, laying much of the blame on the drastically curtailed time to market the pops this year.
On the positive side, Hveem said her staff is lining up companies to guarantee a minimum attendance for some of the remaining concerts.
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