Tough Road Ahead for L.A. Chamber Orchestra : Board President Cites an ‘Unprecedented Convergence of Economic and Environmental Issues’

These are terrible times for the prestigious Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra. Kent Twitchell’s huge mural of its musicians may look very sturdy from the Harbor Freeway, but the organization billing itself as “the orchestra of the 21st Century” has been battered by the city’s economy, riots and earthquakes alike.

As the orchestra celebrates its 25th anniversary, it does so with nearly empty coffers. Concert-goers found last weekend’s concerts at Royce Hall and Ambassador Auditorium were “deferred” until spring, while management scrambles to restructure the season, come up with a replacement for quake-damaged Royce Hall and work out credit arrangements with musicians and other creditors.

Staff and salaries have already been trimmed within the institution’s $2.3-million budget, and creditors gathered on Friday to hear management’s plea to hold off action. Orchestra members last week voted to accept a diminished concert and rehearsal schedule for the rest of the season, and their union on Monday was set to file a grievance for back wages and benefits.

“We faced an unprecedented convergence of economic and environmental issues,” said board president Jennifer Diener. “The growth of audiences and gifts simply didn’t keep pace with the orchestra’s growth.”

At stake is a high-quality, well-known musical group that has long been attracting subscribers and others to concerts at Ambassador Auditorium in Pasadena, the Japan America Theatre downtown and UCLA’s Royce Hall on the Westside. Drawing heavily on Los Angeles’ studio musician pool, the orchestra has made 26 recordings and toured both domestically and internationally.

“When I hear about this, my heart sinks,” said Deborah Rutter Card, the chamber orchestra’s executive director until fall, 1992, when she left for the same post at the Seattle Symphony. “I hear orchestras across the country, and I know the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra is among the very best. I am very distraught by the idea that the chamber orchestra would not exist.”

Formed in 1969, L.A. Chamber Orchestra usually presents 15 to 40 musicians, depending on what they’re playing, and performs world premieres of new work as well as more traditional Mozart and Beethoven concertos and symphonies.

Like so many arts and other organizations, the orchestra grew and prospered through the ‘80s, adding subscribers, halls and patrons. In 1991, the board hired German conductor Christof Perick as its fourth music director, following prior leaders Neville Marriner, Gerard Schwarz and Iona Brown.

Then came all sorts of disasters. First the economy deteriorated, and giving patterns changed. Contributed income started sliding, Diener said, and by the end of last year had dropped to about $1 million from $1.5 million just two years earlier.

Next came the 1992 riots, which knocked out two concerts downtown during curfew nights and changed traffic patterns enough that orchestra officials claim their Japan America audiences never returned to former levels. Concerts were postponed, and deficits were increasing.

“If people are out of work and have their houses shaken by declining real estate values or earthquakes, it puts a crimp in their serious outside interests,” said former board member Nicholas Ciriello, the businessman who is leading efforts to reorganize the orchestra, “whether (those people are) attending or supporting these events.”

Fund-raising is crucial for performing arts organizations like the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, whose ticket income in no way covers costs. Even if you sell out an all-Vivaldi concert, says Ciriello, “you don’t make money. You just lose less.”

The orchestra’s subscribers today number about 2,800, more than double the 1,300 subscribers of the 1986-87 season, and most of what they hear is different from that offered by the Los Angeles Philharmonic or other local ensembles.

“A city like Los Angeles should be able to afford two orchestras, and (L.A. Chamber Orchestra) is a fantastic chamber orchestra,” said Ernest Fleischmann, the Philharmonic’s executive vice president and managing director. “Its hitting really hard times reflects badly on a city like L.A., which perhaps doesn’t deserve the musical riches it’s got.”

One problem, of course, is who will pay for those riches. Fund-raising that was already tough for arts groups in a deteriorating local economy got even tougher when riots and earthquakes increased the number of people and organizations needing aid.

Deficits at Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra went from about $100,000 in fiscal ’91 to an accumulated $465,000 debt the following year, said Diener. That number climbed to $600,000 in its fiscal year ended June 30, 1993, and totaled nearly $1 million by January, 1994.

This is not the first time the institution has deferred concerts either. Financially troubled before, although apparently not to this extent, the chamber orchestra indefinitely postponed three programs last season, for instance.

Executive director Erich Vollmer said the orchestra is likely to eliminate its concerts at Japan America, which represents about a sixth of its audience (compared to 50% at Ambassador and the remaining third at Royce). But neither executives nor board members indicate concern their nomadic existence is a problem.

Nobody, however, is denying assorted internal problems. For one thing, while Rutter Card left for the Seattle Symphony post in November, 1992, Vollmer was not hired until last February to succeed her.

In what one orchestra member refers to as “naivete, not malice,” the organization also got behind in crucial payments. While Vollmer declines to identify the person responsible, he said he discovered last November that regular payments were not being made to some state, federal and union agencies beginning in the last quarter of 1992.

Once the discovery was made, said Vollmer, management notified the state, IRS and others and “affected a payment plan.” Vollmer and Lewis Levy, counsel for Musicians’ Union Local 47 here, say the orchestra and the union will meet to discuss two unmet payrolls as well as delinquent contributions to union pension and other funds.

*

There has been a cash shortage at Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra for about nine months, Vollmer said. The orchestra’s bank reduced its credit line, he said, and they lost a major grant when a key funder changed its giving emphasis. Another key funder postponed grant action from fall to spring.

The orchestra’s tiny staff of 10 lost one position, the development director, and remaining staff salaries were cut 5%. A press release dated Feb. 7 announced that board members pledged $150,000, and two anonymous donors pledged an additional $100,000 a year for five years “contingent upon a satisfactory financial plan and matching commitments of $150,000 a year in additional funding.”

The board is also “actively seeking angels,” said president Diener, who estimates she’s talking with about two dozen potential major donors. The orchestra is also trying to find a new hall to replace Royce in April for the American premiere of the restored Charlie Chaplin silent film classic “The Gold Rush”; the chamber orchestra was set to accompany the film with its original score as a major orchestra fund-raiser.

Postponed concerts have tentatively been rescheduled for late April, Vollmer said, but finances could indeed affect programming changes as well. Schoenberg’s Chamber Symphony No. 2, Op. 38, requires two or three extra rehearsals, conductor Perick said, and may be replaced to save extra rehearsal costs.

Meanwhile, concerts set for Feb. 24 and Feb. 27 at Ambassador Auditorium will go on as planned, according to an orchestra spokesman. The Feb. 25 concert at Japan America Theatre has been canceled, he said, and ticket holders are being asked to exchange their tickets for the Ambassador concerts. The remainder of the season is still being discussed, and they hope to announce plans by the end of the week, he said.

Talks continue too with musicians and other creditors. While only eight of 118 creditors notified about last Friday’s meeting actually attended, Vollmer said those attending agreed to wait for their money until July, and approved of the orchestra telling other creditors of their agreement with encouragement to do the same. The orchestra’s bank had already agreed to wait through June 30, he adds.

“We’re very hopeful that it will all work out and the orchestra go ahead and continue,” said violinist Jennifer Woodward, chair of the orchestra committee and a 14-year Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra veteran. “We love the orchestra a lot, and we feel it’s very valuable for the community.”