Sudbury Symphony seeking $52,000 bailout from city

Another local arts organization is seeking an emergency bailout from the City of Greater Sudbury.

City council willvotetonight on whether to give the Sudbury Symphony Orchestra emergency funding.The group is seeking $52,000.

Last fall, city council approved $200,000in emergency funding to help theSudbury Theatre Centre (STC)pay its creditors.

Brian Koivu, a member of the board of directors for the Sudbury Symphony, blames a collection of financial difficulties over the past 4 to 5 years for their current problem.

"You get into a situation where you're spending next year's money to pay last year's bills. We're in a situation right now with the orchestra wherewe're in need of cash," he said.

The money problems have been pilling up, as the organization attempts to pay bills past due.

Koivu says the symphony has commitments to its subscriber base, that is, their ticket holders who have paid in advance to attend concerts.

"We're trying to finish a season.Now we have one more concert. We had a February [concert], we had a March [concert], we had an April [concert]...and at that point we're thinking 'My gosh. Can we get to June?'"

Koivuexplains that the orchestra is semi-professional, in that core musicians are paid for their services, while the vast majority are local volunteers.

The organization also pays rent to use space at Glad Tidings Pentecostal Church. Koivusays they also have bills for utilities at its office space, and must pay talent fees for guest musicians who haveperformed with the symphony.

New business model

Since February the organization has worked toredesign and rebuild itsbusiness model Koivusaid.

He addedthe symphony is looking into ways to collaborate with the Sudbury Theatre Centre in the future, like possibly sharing a venue, administration, ticketing ormarketing.

"One of our undertakings to [Mayor Brian Bigger] and to the city council is to go about our business in such a way that we won't need to have this kind of thing in the future," Koivusaid.

"That we can operate on the plus side of the ledger and not on the negative side."