Pasadena Symphony’s financial woes won’t stop show from going on

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Although the fundraising drive to save the remaining concerts in the Pasadena Symphony and Pasadena Pops’ recession-threatened 2008-09 season barely has begun, one of the jeopardized dates, the Jan. 10 symphony performance at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium, has been rescued and reprogrammed to include Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony.

Fund-raising is just a shade above $100,000 at this point, plus an additional $100,000 in pledges, out of an estimated $3 million to $4 million needed to play the scheduled season, apart from the one classical concert and the three pops holiday shows that already have succumbed, said Jean Horton, the orchestras’ interim executive director. Officials of the Orchestras of Pasadena (as the combined symphony and pops are known) say the emergency was brought on by a drop in donations and the endowment’s decline following the market meltdown; the plan now is to keep the season afloat on a pay-as-you-go basis through summer.

Horton, a board member who is holding the fort while the recently hired Paul Jan Zdunek transitions into the exective director’s post, said last week that the orchestras have established a $500,000 line of bank credit that can be used to pay some concert expenses. The goal is to use it sparingly while ‘being as aggressive as possible in our fundraising approach.... We’ve been a relatively sleepy group’ until now when it came to seeking and finding new donors, Horton acknowledged. ‘This is going to be a very steep hill to climb.’

To spur on the cause, and give recession-beleaguered music-lovers a powerful swig of tonic for the spirits, the orchestra will play an all-Beethoven concert on Jan. 10: the ‘Emperor’ piano concerto with soloist Howard Shelley, and the Ninth Symhony, with its transcendent ‘Ode to Joy.’

‘With the ‘Ode to Joy’ we want to tell people we’re back and doing this with a sense of joy and happiness that we’re still here to move forward,’ Horton said. ‘The things we do in an otherwise depressing time are kind of nice to have around, and I think it resonates with people.’

Given the times, there’s also a pragmatic reason for switching to Beethoven from the previously planned program of Wagner’s Overture to ‘Rienzi,’ a Dohnanyi suite, and Tchaikovsky’s fourth symphony: the Beethoven, Horton said, requires at least 20 fewer musicians, which will help keep a lid on costs.

Shelley, who has performed with the Pasadena Symphony in the past, and music director Jorge Mester are donating their services, Horton said, and there’s a chance the orchestra’s musicians also may donate their rehearsals and the performance, which would represent a savings of more than $100,000.

-- Mike Boehm

Beethoven portrait: file art