ARTS BEAT / HILLIARD HARPER : Symphony Balances Out With Help From Friends

The call from the symphony came into the newsroom at about 10:30 a.m. It sounded urgent. Important financial development. Press conference at 4:30 p.m.

What could it be? “Donor Gives Orchestra $4 Million to Name Symphony Hall.” Or “Orchestra Receives $10 Million Endowment.”

The press conference was called to announce that the San Diego Symphony will balance its budget for--get out the cymbals--the second year in a row!

OK, so a balanced budget--or even two in a row, which the symphony has managed--may not be reason for most institutions to call out the press, but with the San Diego Symphony, which had plied a sea of red ink for a full decade, breaking even is Big News.

“We thought it was appropriate to share (the news) with the community,” symphony board President Herbert J. Solomon told the three newspaper reporters in attendance. (The TV folks, perhaps tipped to the limited visual possibilities of the announcement, did not show.)

In fact, the good news--that the symphony balanced its $5.5-million budget--came on the heels of bad--that it had fallen short of that figure by $500,000. The balance was achieved through a last-ditch, call-the-rich fund campaign. Half the $500,000 came from board members Ellen Revelle and Judson Grosvenor; another $200,000 came from Publisher Helen K. Copley and the Copley Foundation.

To its credit, the symphony contributed to its own fiscal stability by cutting its projected expenses by $250,000. The symphony may still be a hard sell to the general community--ticket sales were down this season by 15%--but its benefactors seem to believe it is now on the right track.

Executive director Wesley O. Brustad said that, given the image problems left over from the canceled 1986-87 season, projecting ticket sales is like “throwing darts at a board” anyway. Brustad acknowledged that part of the problem may have been in programming. He was surprised, for instance, that the Cab Calloway concerts did not attract larger audiences.

Brustad also said he is considering including more light classics in next year’s Summer Pops program.

Clearly, the symphony needs everything it can get going for it. This coming season, its budget will jump by $1.5 million to about $7 million. “Helen? Helen?”

The new Commission for Arts and Culture will discuss and take action on a report on Mayor Maureen O’Connor’s Soviet Arts Festival at its meeting at 2 p.m. Friday. Last week the commission approved in principle a city manager’s report that recommended, among other things, earmarking up to $3 million in hotel-motel tax funds for the three-week festival. There is concern in quarters of the arts community that the fest, tentatively scheduled to open Oct. 21, 1989, may drain money that otherwise could go to local arts groups.

“From our standpoint, we’re going to have more money to work with,” said Milton Fredman, chairman of the arts commission.

The city manager’s proposal means that the local arts community will receive $600,000 over and above the $3 million in tax revenues, Fredman said.

The commission will also consider specific manager recommendations on budgeting the funds and on establishing a nonprofit corporation, San Diego Festivals Inc., to assist in planning and running the festival.

The commission’s greatest priority, however, is not the Soviet Arts Festival, said Victoria Hamilton, the commission’s executive director. “Our first task is to set up an allocations process.”

Hamilton hopes a process of evaluating local arts groups and allocating city tax funds will be agreed upon soon so that a January deadline can be set for arts organizations to apply for city funds. News of the dissatisfaction of classical musicians in Seattle, who recently defected from the 98-year-old American Federation of Musicians, does not apply here, say local classical players.

“Here in San Diego, we have a fabulous relationship with our local,” said Gregory Berton, a bassist in the San Diego Symphony. “They have been extremely supportive of symphony musicians and our dealings here.”

“The orchestra here enjoys a pretty fruitful relationship with the local,” agreed symphony principal clarinet David Peck. “We’ve received tons and tons of help from the union.”

The situation that caused the Seattle rebellion exists here--the classical musicians represent a small percentage of the local membership but pay a large percentage of the dues.

“I’ll make no qualms about it. We do depend to a great degree on the work dues of our classical musicians,” said Eddie Arias, business representative of Local 325. The difference is, “they get a commensurate amount of attention based on the revenue that they contribute,” he said. The musicians agree.