Utah Symphony|Utah Opera announced Friday the launch of “The Campaign for Perpetual Motion,” a $20 million public fundraising campaign to prepare for the Utah Symphony’s 75th anniversary celebration in the 2015-16 season.
USUO board of trustees chair Pat Richards made the announcement at the end of intermission at Friday’s Utah Symphony concert in Abravanel Hall. She also said that the George S. and Dolores Doré Eccles Foundation has given USUO $5 million to get the campaign started. To date, the Eccles Foundation has donated more than $32 million to USUO.
The money raised during this fundraiser will go to several projects. Among the plans in development are:
- Touring within Utah, including a statewide tour during the Utah Symphony’s 75th anniversary season and a tour including free concerts in or near each of the state’s five national parks;
- Utah Symphony tours to the West and East coasts;
- International tours to Europe and Asia;
- New recording and broadcasting projects;
- Commissioning of new works, including a special commission inspired by Utah landscapes for the symphony’s 75th anniversary season.
The ‘Campaign for Perpetual Motion” is indeed ambitious. The essence of the campaign is to raise the state-wide, regional, national, and international profile, reputation, and engagement of the Utah Symphony and Utah Opera. As a subscriber for many years I support it, but am intrigued by the details that will be provided as the campaign moves forward.
Now that the organization has a balanced budget, such a campaign is an appropriate way to envision and plan for the future. Nevertheless, as I am sure the organization is aware, some aspects of the campaign perhaps deserve especially careful consideration in today’s economic climate.
Touring outside of the state of Utah is financially possible, but one can wonder if a balance between touring and recording could be considered even more carefully. It appears that such a balance has been weighed with much thought. The Symphony did seek to be invited to Carnegie Hall for the Spring for Music program (2011-2014), but the vagaries of acceptance to that program appear to have been as much perceived commitment to adventuresome programming as consideration of such progamming in the context of a “home” or local audience. Although the notion of the “Big Five” orchestras in the United States has long passed its usefulness as a measure of performance and audience enthusiasm standards, touring to the East coast or Carnegie Hall appears to be the most well-trodden path to heightened awareness of a “regional” orchestra’s quality. As for the West coast, I would advocate for an appearance at the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s Walt Disney Concert Hall. An initial tour to Europe will hopefully include Geneva, Thierry Fischer’s home base, and also a place where pivotal music director Maurice Abravanel lived for some time.
The Utah Symphony is an orchestra of the highest caliber, but the awareness of the current level of performance quality the orchestra can provide appears to be weak to non-existent in many music magazines and among some opinion-makers and record companies, for what they are worth.
One hopes that recordings and tourings can redress this rather narrow perception. Hopefully, recordings can be made without a need to tour extensively, especially if they could be made from a combination of live and rehearsal performances–a “studio” recording, without any audience presence, may be less viable financially.
I believe that the heart of any campaign like this should remain our local audience, and maintaining and increasing its attendance and support. In any case, I firmly support the Campaign, and believe that it is an ideal way to further the long-term relevance and viability of the Utah Symphony and Utah Opera.
Gregory Walz