Fiscal Picture for Music Center Is Brighter

The situation at the Music Center of Los Angeles County is very different from OCPAC, in part because it is a very different organization, a complex but well-established interlocking of the resident performing companies, the Music Center and the Music Center Operating Company.

Economic indicators may be down, but the Music Center--the public-private partnership that serves the resident Music Center companies as an umbrella fund-raiser--is launching a long-range plan that proposes a 15% increase in fund raising for 1991.

“We’re concerned--no question--about the (economic) environment,” said Esther Wachtell, president of the Music Center. She reports that the demand for the services of the resident companies--the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Center Theatre Group, Los Angeles Music Center Opera, the Los Angeles Master Chorale and the Joffrey Ballet LA/NY--and the Music Center Education Division has risen 20% in 1990.

“We plan very far in advance,” Wachtell said. “Over a year ago, we developed a strategic plan, which went into effect in July.” This plan mandated a goal of $17.6 million for 1991.

“It’s very early--this is preparation time for us--but from what we can gather, we are right on target,” Wachtell said.

From that money comes the budget for the Music Center itself, and large contributions to the resident companies, such as $4.4 million to the Los Angeles Philharmonic for the 1988-89 season, or the cash infusions to the Joffrey Ballet. Although the resident companies receive government support, the Music Center funds are entirely from the private sector.

The Music Center also does not book or produce presentations, so it cannot lose money at the box office. The resident companies present other performing groups, and the Music Center Operating Company books the facilities for the times--basically only a few weeks in the summer--when the resident companies are not using them.

The Operating Company, which is charged with the maintenance of the facilities, is supported in part through the county of Los Angeles, but mainly through rents that the resident companies pay.

The resident companies naturally find themselves in varying conditions. Philharmonic subscriptions are up and the company is moving ahead with ambitious plans, as is the Music Center Opera, which recently announced the $1-million donors to its Angel fund-raising program. Subscriptions are down slightly for the Master Chorale, with a lame duck music director and no successor named, and the financial woes of the Joffrey Ballet have been much reported

The Center Theatre Group has been buoyed by an infusion of cash from its tenant at the Ahmanson Theatre, “The Phantom of the Opera.” The rental necessitated moving the Ahmanson play series to the Doolittle Theatre in Hollywood, where it’s reported to be running at a break-even level; the books for the CTG’s other half, the Mark Taper Forum, have recently shown a slight surplus.