Curtains

Nothing but bad news today:

• New York City won't help NYCO stay afloat; neither will private philanthropist Michael Bloomberg (or, apparently, anyone else with $7 million to spare).
• Elsewhere, it's reported that the company raised about $2 million of that $7 million.
• The Minnesota Orchestra Association's most recent offer, publicized by the MAO despite an agreed-upon media blackout, was still horrifyingly short of what the musicians made before the lockout and was duly rejected by the musicians. There was a $20,000 "signing bonus" in the offer, which would not come close, over time, to matching the size of the cuts the MOA was asking for.
• Thus, the orchestra is withdrawing from the planned Carnegie Hall concerts. I can't imagine Osmo Vänskä staying under these circumstances, but no announcement has been made yet.

Both NYCO and the MOA lost a year of concerts, and income, with critical impact on their budgeting. The MOA, of course, has locked out its musicians for a year. I expect NYCO to proceed with its bankruptcy filing and the MOA to collapse more slowly: it still has an endowment left. As Alex Ross says, the boards of directors of these two organizations deserve careful scrutiny for their roles in these catastrophes.