Deficit May End Philharmonic’s Training Group : Music: Managing Director Ernest Fleischmann says this season may be its last unless $250,000 is raised by Oct. 31.

In a surprise concert announcement Sunday, Ernest Fleischmann set a virtual death watch on the 10-year-old Los Angeles Philharmonic Institute. The Philharmonic managing director told a Hollywood Bowl audience that unless $250,000 is raised by Oct. 31, the training program will cease to exist, at least in its present form.

“As the 10th season of the Philharmonic Institute draws to a close, it is doubtful whether there will be an 11th season next summer--unless we can count on your generous help and support,” Fleischmann wrote in a letter handed out to audience members prior to the concert, along with an envelope for contributions.

Ironically, the orchestra assembled this year is considered one of the best by the Institute leaders and has been generally well-received critically. To celebrate the anniversary milestone, the L.A. Composers Project Competition was initiated to commission works for the Institute, with Edward Knight’s “Granite Island” presented Aug. 11 as the first in what was assumed to be an annual series.

Leonard Bernstein was the founding artistic director of the Institute, which was established to provide training and development for young instrumentalists and conductors. Each summer, more than 100 musicians gather for rehearsals and master classes with members of the Philharmonic and guest artists. The fruits of their efforts are displayed in about 14 performances each season at Hollywood Bowl, Royce Hall, Schoenberg Hall and the John Anson Ford Amphitheatre.

The musicians, ages 16-30, are selected through national auditions. The roster this season lists nine players from foreign countries.

All the players are on full tuition scholarship for the seven-week term, and the Institute provides financial assistance with housing on the basis of need. All of this contributes to the expenses of a budget of $600,000.

The crisis comes from fiscal constraints of the Philharmonic. In previous seasons the deficit was covered from Philharmonic operating funds, but now the parent orchestra finds itself in financial difficulties, with a $1.15 million deficit of its own.

“We had to look at activities that do not bring in revenue, or where the direct costs exceed the income,” Fleischmann says. “The board feels, and rightly, that the Institute is not part of the essential activity of the Philharmonic, although in the long run, musician development is as important as audience development.”

Plans for closing the Philharmonic deficit in a period of recession and dwindling government support for the arts feature less reliance on the services of big-name, big-bucks guest stars, aggressive corporate fund raising, administrative cutbacks, and curtailing or abbreviating activities such as Upbeat, the subscriber magazine, and the Green Umbrella new music program.

And the possible elimination or down-scaling of the Institute. Ruggirello says that more than 500 musicians are heard in auditions each year, and that process must begin this fall, hence the deadline imposed by Fleischmann.

The current crisis may change the perception of the Institute, as 100 musicians go home with financial gloom as the coda to their performances. “I think it is going to make my job a little trickier,” Institute administrator James Ruggirello concedes, “if all the conservatories hear that we are on the ropes.”