Symphony Hopes To Cure Ice Storm Ills

The November ice storm packed quite a wallop. The storm hit the Spokane Symphony in the place it hurts worst - the box office - and the orchestra is still reeling.

“It hit us hard,” says Jonathan Martin, the orchestra’s executive director. “Our best guess is lost ticket revenue of somewhere between $55,000 to $65,000.”

Symphony musicians and conductor Fabio Mechetti, all of whom are donating their services, will be joined by guest piano soloist Andre Watts in a benefit concert Saturday. The symphony hopes that proceeds from the concert will make up for some of November and December’s lost revenue.

Friday’s program will include Brahms’ Piano Concerto No. 1, Beethoven’s “Leonore” Overture No. 3 and his Overture to “Egmont.”

“The month of December is usually our biggest revenue-producing month from the standpoint of single-ticket sales,” Martin says. ” ‘The Nutcracker’ alone accounts for half of our projected single-ticket revenue for the whole season.

“When the storm hit, our advance ticket sales dropped almost to zero,” Martin laments. “That was also the week of one of our classics programs. The post-storm ‘depression’ also had a serious impact on sales for the Holiday Pops concerts.

“For a while,” he says, “a lot of people just stayed home.”

Many Spokane businesses absorbed a similar loss in sales, but arts organizations have little in capital reserve with which to cushion blows of lost income. “The reality of art organizations’ budgets,” Martin says, “is that most expenses are already committed in things like artist fees, salaries and music and hall rental.”

The success of the symphony’s Christmas Tree Elegance program and its annual fund drive helped. But the midseason financial picture still revealed what Martin calls “some ugly numbers.”

Following the budget review in January, the orchestra conducted a line-by-line review of projected expenses. Reductions were made, including moving a number of orchestra rehearsals from the Opera House auditorium to the music room.

“What we did not want to get into,” Martin says, “was anything that would damage the quality of the music, such as cutting the number of players or cutting rehearsals. We have a covenant with our audience to put the highest quality musicmaking on the stage that we can.”

After discussing the possibility of a benefit concert, Martin and Mechetti looked at the orchestra’s existing schedule, the availability of the Opera House, Mechetti’s schedule of out-of-town engagements and the availability of a major artist who would perform with the orchestra. “We came up with exactly one weekend when we could make this happen,” Martin says.

Watts is on the short list of classical music’s superstars who perform benefit concerts such as the symphony proposed. Artists of Watts’ stature usually command fees from $30,000 to $65,000, but the pianist agreed to come to Spokane for far less. Exactly how much less, Martin is unwilling to say. “But let me tell you, it was a very substantial reduction,” Martin concedes.

Watts made his debut in 1963 at age 16 in a New York Philharmonic Young People’s Concert with Leonard Bernstein conducting. Two weeks later, Bernstein asked Watts to substitute for the ailing Glenn Gould on a Philharmonic subscription concert. Since then, Watts has joined the ranks of world’s great pianists.

He was born in a U.S. Army camp near Nuremberg in 1946, his father an American soldier and his mother Hungarian. After lessons with his mother and teachers in Philadelphia, where his parents settled, Watts performed with the Philadelphia Orchestra in a children’s concert at age 9 and in a subscription concert at 11. After his appearance with the New York Philharmonic, he made his European debut with the London Symphony in 1966.

Watts celebrated the 25th anniversary of his New York debut with the Philharmonic with a televised broadcast in which he played concertos by Liszt, Beethoven and Rachmaninoff. He earned an artist’s diploma from the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore, and Yale University awarded Watts an honorary doctorate.

“To me, Watts is an American icon,” Martin says. “His career is an extraordinary story. Still, we’ve tried to be careful in pricing the tickets at an affordable level. We want our audience to help us play our way out of debt rather than cut our way out.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: CONCERT The Spokane Symphony will perform at 8 p.m. Friday at the Spokane Opera House. Tickets are $20 to $40, available at the symphony ticket office (624-1200), G&B Select-a-Seat outlets or call (800) 325-SEAT.