Shreveport Symphony Downsizes Itself

“The board of directors for the Shreveport Symphony Orchestra announced late Friday afternoon it will move forward with its proposal to move core musicians to a per-service payment structure… The board’s offer includes a 75 percent cut to core or full-time musicians, from $12,693 to $3,123 for the 2008-09 season. The proposal would also include the elimination of 24 full-time core positions as of Sept. 1.”

Plenty Of Classical Fans In Montreal

Classical music a niche genre? Don’t tell the concertgoers of Montreal, where 4,200 members of the paying public recently attended three separate classical concerts on a Monday night! “The wonder is that all this happens at the end of a long season, when one might suppose classical fans to be financially drained and musically saturated.”

Terese Kaptur To Run Fort Collins Orchestra

Colorado’s Fort Collins Symphony has tapped the director of the National Repertory Orchestra in Breckenridge to be its new executive director. “When she began, the NRO was in a deficit, but during her time there, the orchestra’s budget more than doubled with a 14 percent surplus, and attendance increased by 10 to 15 percent each season.”

Waiting For Shubert

Minneapolis’s Shubert Theater has been on the restoration list for nearly a decade, but it still sits empty and run-down, waiting to become the regional dance hub that has been promised for so long. Now, the renovation plans are changing yet again. “The anticipated cost of the renovation is now $41 million, up from $37 million two years ago… And if everything goes as planned, the Shubert’s doors will open in January, 2010.”