Orchestra Goes Silent Due to Lack of Funds

The Glendale Symphony Orchestra, a longtime community fixture facing tight finances, will offer no concert season in 2002-03.

Instead, executive director Pam Ellis said, the organization will focus on presenting education programs and recruiting donors and board members.

“It’s the only fiscally sound decision to make. You have to have the money in the bank, and you have to have the ability to pay your bills,” Ellis said. “You can’t expect professional musicians to do this for nothing.”

Ellis was hired Aug. 19 following a grant of $65,000 from the Ralph M. Parsons Foundation, and her top priority has been trying to put the 78-year-old organization on a stable financial footing. She is the orchestra’s first full-time staffer in several years. The orchestra’s music director, Sidney Weiss, and the musicians are hired performance by performance.

Last season’s Glendale Symphony season included three performances at the Alex Theatre, the most recent an Aug. 17 “America the Beautiful” program. Ellis said the orchestra’s next performance may come in the spring, but in the meantime, the organization will continue its “ensembles in the schools” program with the Glendale Unified School District and will stage its third tuba Christmas event, which brings 250 tuba players together for holiday tunes.

Over its history, the Glendale orchestra evolved from an outdoor “community sing” ensemble to an accomplished indoor band, playing with such noted conductors as Miklos Rozsa, Elmer Bernstein, Nelson Riddle and Henry Mancini.