What’s a New South City without a Symphony?

by Chris McLeod

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January 10, 2012

“Violins of Hope,” a collection of 18 violins restored by Israeli master violinmaker Amnon Weinstein, is coming to North America making its debut in Charlotte this April. What is especially remarkable about this collection is that each violin is an artifact from the Holocaust. Some were played by prisoners in Nazi concentration camps; others belonged to the Jewish Klezmer musical culture which was all but destroyed in the Holocaust.

First played publicly in 2008 in Jerusalem and then exhibited and played in 2010 in Sion, Switzerland, the 18 “Violins of Hope” have never before been exhibited or played together in North America. The rich local educational and cultural programming inspired by their arrival is expected to garner national attention for exhibition host University of North Carolina, Charlotte and culminates in a concert performance by world acclaimed violin virtuoso, Shlomo Mintz, accompanied by the Charlotte Symphony.

The irony is that “Violins of Hope” are coming to Charlotte just at the time that the Charlotte Symphony is fighting for its life.

In his famous book, Man’s Search for Meaning, Victor Frankl tells the story of how he survived the Holocaust by finding personal meaning in the experience which gave him the will to live through it. Frankl wrote about the power of love, meaning and purpose as the differentiating factors that helped explain why some people managed to survive the Nazi death camps and others did not. Frankl noted that those who had an all-consuming passion, love, and a drive to survive—to fulfill their destiny—gave them an unquenchable desire to live in spite of unspeakable human cruelty and harsh conditions.

And survive they did.

The question is where are the donors in Charlotte who have an all-consuming passion for outstanding classical music – or for making Charlotte a vibrant cultural community? Will the Charlotte Symphony survive?

It is poignant to me that 70 years ago one could find people in the Nazi concentration camps risking their lives to protect a violin – and yet today, the Charlotte Symphony has only 23 individual donors who made gifts of $10,000 or more annually to the Symphony in 2010. Their successful funding model that existed for 30-plus years – heavy reliance on a united arts fund and a handful of generous corporations – had the unintended consequence of suppressing the development of a large pool of generous individual donors.

Communities like Buffalo and Albany in economically beleaguered Upstate New York boast a stable full of donors who regularly make gifts of $25,000 and $50,000 annually. Nashville Symphony Orchestra (NSO), in the country music capital with a population of 657,000 and 1.5 million in the 13-county MSA (with only five Fortune 500 companies that employ fewer than 5,000 each), boasts 46 donors who make gifts of $10,000 or more annually - double Charlotte’s numbers. Nashville Symphony has twice as many donors (12 donors) who give between $50,000 and $100,000 annually,  and 34 donor families who contribute $10,000 or more annually (Charlotte has 17). Nashville enjoys the support of 47 businesses that support the NSO at $10,000 annually and another 17 companies of the 46 that contribute $25,000 or more. The Charlotte Symphony has fewer than a dozen companies that provide annual support of $10,000 or more.

The paradox is that Charlotte finally has the right leadership in place, and one that is doing everything possible to build new audiences through new concert programming and more value to the community through its educational activities. Jonathan Martin, executive director of the Charlotte Symphony, is an accomplished, passionate, creative veteran of the Atlanta Symphony and Cleveland Orchestra and one of the hardest working leaders of orchestras in the country.

And to Martin’s and Pat Rodgers’ credit, (Rodgers was board chair of the Symphony at the time) they managed to recruit Christopher Warren-Green as the Symphony’s Music Director and his wife Rosemary Furniss, who have both embraced the city and its residents - and who arrived the same week the Arts &Science Council cut its funding by $1.1 million.

Warren-Green’s role in conducting the orchestra for the Royal Wedding brought international acclaim to Charlotte. What a shame it would be to squander this good will and good fortune – and lose the talent and creativity of these cultural leaders and their extraordinary musicians.

Charlotte needs “Violins of Hope,” Cellos of Hope and a new group of inspired and generous donors who want to continue a distinguished 80-year history of classical music.

Where will those who love and cherish classical music and music education find hope and comfort if the Charlotte Symphony collapses and disappears? On the eve of perhaps the community’s most visible moment in time, with the 2012 Democratic National Convention less than nine months away, can Charlotte be a New South City without a distinguished symphony?

Charlotte stands to look a lot more than foolish – indeed, we may be seen as heartless and uncreative, especially if the second largest financial center and New South City cannot round up the donors and financial expertise to sustain its orchestra and keep Christopher Warren-Green and Jonathan Martin in Charlotte.

Martin and Warren-Green haven’t given up on Charlotte; the question is can Charlotte afford to give up on them?