Financial endowment for troubled orchestra

By Shelley NichollStaff ReporterJan 12 2007 http://www.kelownacapnews.com/
It was the sweetest sound local orchestra musicians had heard in years. On Thursday, the board of the Okanagan Symphony Orchestra announced it was setting up an endowment fund that would give the orchestra some much-needed financial security. “It’s what I’ve been dreaming about for years—many years,” said concert master Denis Letourneau. While the concept is used by other symphonies and has been discussed locally, it didn’t make it to the implementation stage until now.

“It took the right combination of business people and musicians to spearhead the project,” Letourneau said. “That didn’t seem available to us in the past.” Letourneau, the OSO’s first principal violinist who has been with the symphony for 31 years, has worked through the fluctuating financial woes of the past. In 2003, the symphony had to cancel concerts as it faced a debt load of about $480,000. The board restructured the programs and battled the debt in the following years, bringing it down to $50,000 currently. It’s hoped that will be gone by 2010.

When the 2003 concerts were officially cancelled, the musicians donated their time to put on a benefit concert, raising $15,650. That amount will go to the endowment fund. “The appropriate vehicle for those funds to be used has only just arrived,” said Letourneau at the ceremony at UBC Okanagan. OSO board president Duncan Innes said, while the endowment won’t cover all the upcoming costs for the symphony, it will give the orchestra a stable income base to work with. It also gives it the security to expand its programs.

Innes explained that only about 25 per cent of the orchestra’s funding comes from ticket sales. Federal and provincial arts grants are available, but fund raising has to pick up the rest. “This makes us less dependent on other sources,” said Innes. Board director Graham Burns, of TD Waterhouse, explained how the endowment would be set up. Initially, the symphony society will sign up 100 donors committed to putting in $3,000 a year for five years. A further 25 donors will be added each year over the next four years. The goal is to have $3 million in the fund by 2011.

“In three to five years, we hope to be financially sound and stable…in perpetuity,” he said. At this point, $160,050 has already been committed, including the musician’s donation. Vancouver philanthropist Don Rix put in $25,000 from his family’s foundation and former symphony president Dominic Petraroia and Sharon Petraroia added $15,000, also from a family foundation.

The other $104,399 is already being held in foundations from North, South and Central Okanagan. An application is also in the works for a grant of $116,098 from the B.C. Renaissance fund through Heritage Canada. Donations of any size are welcome in the fund, which will be managed locally through the Central Okanagan Foundation. Those participating in the $3,000 per year over five years program will be dubbed founding patrons.