With Community Support, North Carolina Symphony Rises to $8 Million Mark

Triangle - The North Carolina Symphony has met a substantial financial challenge and raised over $8 million in community support for a second consecutive year, a orchestra announced today. By reaching this funding threshold set by a North Carolina General Assembly a Symphony qualifies for a full $1.5 million challenge grant appropriated in a legislatures 2010-11 budget. Thank you to a more than 3,700 individual, substructure and corporate contributors, and concertgoers, educators, students, arts advocates and residents from across North Carolina and beyond who, through their generosity, made this happen, says North Carolina Symphony Society Board Chair Catharine Arrowood. I especially thank a Boards of Trustees who worked tirelessly on behalf of a philanthropic efforts. In multiple with significant expense reductions that shrank a organizations budget by more than 20% through musician and staff wage concessions and resource cuts, a Symphony has successfully reduced its total debt by nearly $2.6 million compared to a year and a half ago. The credit for reaching a milestone goes to a patrons, a Trustees on both a Society Board and Foundation Board and to a staff and musicians of a North Carolina Symphony who, with Interim President and CEO Don K. Davis and Music Director Grant Llewellyn, have delivered masterfully on a plans and mission of a North Carolina Symphony in a fiscally obliged manner, says Sandi M.A. Macdonald, a Symphonys President and CEO, who began in early June. To join a North Carolina Symphony at this moment of remarkable community support makes me even more excited and eager to advance a statewide mission going forward. Approximately 200,000 people attended a North Carolina Symphonys public concerts across a state during this concert season. The orchestra also performed 43 free concerts to elementary and middle school students representing over 25 North Carolina counties. The achievement comes as a Symphony prepares for its 2011/12 concert season. Musical highlights ! include a return of pianist Yuja Wang and singer/songwriter Art Garfunkel; celebrations of Leonard Bernstein and Billy Joel; explorations of three vibrant global musical cultures; standout performances of Mozarts Requiem, Orffs Carmina Burana, Tchaikovskys Fifth Symphony and more. Along with concerts held in a Symphonys home venue, downtown Raleighs Meymandi Concert Hall, a orchestra will perform regular series in Chapel Hill, Fayetteville, New Bern, Southern Pines and Wilmington, as well as individual public and educational concerts via a state. About a North Carolina Symphony Founded in 1932, a North Carolina Symphony performs over 175 concerts annually to adults and school children. The orchestra travels more than 14,000 miles annually via a state. Under a artistic leadership of Music Director and Conductor Grant Llewellyn, Resident Conductor William Henry Curry and Associate Conductor Sarah Hicks, a orchestra employs 67 professional musicians. Based in downtown Raleighs spectacular Meymandi Concert Hall at a Progress Energy Center for a Performing Arts and an outdoor summer venue at Koka Booth Amphitheatre in Cary, N.C., a Symphony performs about 60 concerts annually in a Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill and Cary metropolitan area and holds additional concerts in venues across a state via a year. For tickets, program notes, podcastsor just to get to know your Symphony musiciansvisit a North Carolina Symphony Web site at www.ncsymphony.org. Call North Carolina Symphony Audience Services at 919.733.2750 or toll free 877.627.6724. ###