Venue Values Quality Over Cost

Pianist Andras Schiff’s recital on Monday marks the La Jolla Chamber Music Society’s return to the Sherwood Auditorium, which was closed for two years during a $9.25-million renovation of the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego in La Jolla.

The result has been described in these pages as “the only exemplary architecture built in downtown La Jolla” in 80 years. In the auditorium, asbestos-based paint was replaced by more acoustically friendly paint, wood was added to the back wall, and seats were re-covered.

Still, how does a venue with one-fifth the capacity of halls that Schiff usually plays attract an artist of his caliber?

“This is a distinguished series,” said society executive director, Neale Perl. “We’ve had [pianists] Murray Perahia and Alfred Brendel, we’ve had all the great [string] quartets. A lot of management companies seek us out.”

What that means in terms of dollars and cents, however, is that the bottom line is not the bottom line; the society puts quality before fiscal considerations.

According to Perl, every concert on the Sherwood Series sells out, yet the series still runs a deficit. To break even, donations must match ticket sales. Additionally, three other revenue-generating series, including a Celebrity Series in the 3,000-seat Civic Theatre, help subsidize the Sherwood Series, now in its 27th year.

“The La Jolla Chamber Music Society was founded with this series,” Perl noted. ‘It is the heart and soul of our organization. We do whatever it takes to keep it going.”