Philharmonic hopes to fill void
Posted on Monday, December 29, 2008
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette/WILLIAM MOORE Encore String Quartet violinists (left) Sarah Houk and Karol Rulli perform during a holiday recital Dec. 20 in the Walker Community Room at the Fayetteville Public Library. The two are a part of the North Arkansas Symphony Orchestra.
The future of the North Arkansas Symphony Orchestra has been unclear in the nine months since it canceled its last concert of the 2007-08 season.
A member of the orchestra's board of directors and another volunteer who helped stop the "hemorrhage" of funding say aggressive steps are being made to reconcile about $95,000 in debt, and eventually the North Arkansas Symphony Orchestra will be rebuilt.
A core group of about 20 regional musicians have joined a grassroots effort to fill the void by creating a new symphony they call the Arkansas Philharmonic.
Aldee Marquis, who served as general manager of the North Arkansas Symphony Orchestra, is executive director of the new group. The conductor is Miles Fish, who resigned this year from the same position with the financially struggling Civic Symphony of Benton County, which he helped found in 2001.
About 30 musicians have committed to playing the Philharmonic's first concert, set for Feb. 14 at the Arend Arts Center in Bentonville, and the group is looking for more. The symphony is asking musicians to donate their time for the first concert, which will be free to the public.
Organizers hope to pay musicians by the second concert, which is scheduled May 8 at the Walton Arts Center in Fayetteville.
"We want to showcase who we are and show the community what they're missing if it's not there," said Fish, who added that the lack of symphony music in Benton and Washington counties this season has been like the death of a loved one for many musicians.
"We know we have something to give," Fish said. "We've got too much going on in this community to not figure out how to do this."
The group wants people to come listen to the orchestra and to decide for themselves that it's something they're willing to support, he said.
The idea for the Philharmonic resulted from a fall discussion among members of the North Arkansas Symphony Orchestra and the Civic Symphony of Benton County.
For Fish, the motivation for getting involved was being able to inspire and educate others about symphony music.
"We want to go into the schools and play," he said, later adding that an educational outreach program wouldn't immediately be established. "So many of us got into this business because someone came into our schools and played.
"We thought, 'Are we going to be raising a generation that doesn't have a chance because we couldn't support an orchestra?' Then we knew there was no turning back."
The 2009-10 season, which has been scheduled, is critical to the orchestra's success. Eventually, it hopes to include a chorale orchestra and to develop an education program.
"There's no room for mediocrity in this venture," Fish said.
Earlier this year, officials with the Fort Smith Symphony and the North Arkansas Symphony discussed working together but decided against it, said Jeannine Wagar, former director of the North Arkansas Symphony, and John Jeter, director of the Fort Smith group.
"It was a very general collaboration," Jeter said. "The plans haven't been revisited."
The Fort Smith Symphony plans to someday expand its programming to outside the city, but Jeter said officials weren't ready to do so through the North Arkansas Symphony. Fort Smith has scheduled two Feb. 10 concerts for fifth-graders at the Arend Arts Center in Bentonville but has no other plans outside of Fort Smith.
There also is talk of combining the Benton County and Fayetteville orchestras, Fish said, but North Arkansas Symphony leaders thought it best to get a firm hold on their own debt before trying to expand.
His group is confident it can succeed, but Fish knows the Arkansas Philharmonic won't become a prominent symphony overnight. It will need community, philanthropic and corporate support, he said.
The Arkansas Arts Council awarded a grant of about $10,000 to help pay a part-time salary to Marquis, whose main task will be to secure funding for the new orchestra. The grant will be renewable for two more years at about $15,000.
Board members haven't yet established a budget, though Fish estimated concerts cost about $1,500 each to perform.
The Civic Symphony of Benton County was funded through ticket sales, grants and fundraisers, but it was a monumental task for the small group, Fish said.
"I expect if this orchestra is going to survive, there will be a lot more people involved with [fundraising]," he said. "Instead of ticket sales and a good fundraiser, which kept us going concert to concert, we have to have good ticket sales, ownership of the community and have good donors."
The North Arkansas Symphony Orchestra struggled financially for several years, eventually accumulating more than $150,000 in debt, said Mike Norton, former chairman of the board for the orchestra.
Officials said there is public misconception that the organization ate through an endowment, but the North Arkansas Symphony Orchestra never had one aside from a $40,000 fund designated to pay a University of Arkansas student violinist.
At one point years ago, Norton said, the orchestra had about $250,000 in the bank, but that was from earnings and never was designated as an endowment.
Infighting among musicians and managers created tension throughout the orchestra and likely chipped away at available donors, he said.
Former chairman Bob Gaddy, who died earlier this year, often supported the symphony with his own funds after corporate sponsorships and other donations dwindled.
Tensions had settled within the last year, but sponsorships and donations had dropped so low it was impossible to support day-to-day operations, Norton said. It was then that board members decided to temporarily cease the symphony's programming and assign a task force to come up with a plan to rebuild.
Within the past few months, the orchestra has managed to pay off about $60,000 of its debt, and officials believe the rest will be rectified after it hosts the National Symphony Orchestra on March 31 at the Walton Arts Center, said Karen Kapella, a former task force member.
Meanwhile, volunteers are working to secure grants, sponsorships and other donations.
The Arkansas Arts Council is waiting for the group to finish paperwork so it can see whether it's still eligible for a grant of about $27,000, said Joy Pennington, the council's executive director.
It will be at least 2010 before the North Arkansas Symphony Orchestra returns to a normal season schedule, said Bootsie Ackerman, a board member working to restore the organization.
"We are focused on the history of this and support the organization has had over time," she said. "I think that's a valuable asset. There's still a lot of people who support the North Arkansas Symphony. It's not dead."
Officials from the North Arkansas Symphony Orchestra and the Arkansas Philharmonic said it's too soon to see how one will affect the other.
"I imagine that the strongest at the end of the day - one or the other or both - will emerge as viable," Ackerman said. "We'll just have to see. It's just an unknown."
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aotoole@arkansasonline.com
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