Regina Symphony Orchestra receives $200,000 emergency grant from province
CBC
The Government of Saskatchewan has announced a $200,000 one-time emergency grant to help stabilize the Regina Symphony Orchestra's (RSO) amid financial woes.
"The basic cause for the circumstances are the lingering effects from the COVID pandemic," said Ian Yeates, the Board Chair of the RSO.
"The return to normal has not yet been experienced by the RSO and the Canadian orchestral world in general."
Audience turnouts for the RSO aren't what they once were. Ticket sales only cover 25 to 30 per cent of operating expenses, which include salaries for musicians and staff and the costs of renting venues, said Yeates.
He said the RSO only had enough available funds to operate for 45 more days.
The emergency funding will carry the RSO through to the fall. The organization hopes the money can help with fundraising initiatives and attracting more audience members.
"This will get us through the very difficult cash flow that we had forecast," said Yeates.
"I I think we're going to be able to launch the new year, and hopefully we'll do well with subscription sales and things like that, so that we can start off in reasonable shape in in the fall."
The RSO is Canada's oldest continuously performing orchestra and a large part of Regina's history.
"We are asking the community to step up now," said Laura Ross, the province's minister of culture. "The RSO is part of our history and we hope that they are going to be here to share their gift for future generations."
The RSO said the funds will go toward modernizing its business model, making connections with the community so people re-discover the symphony and creating new fundraising initiatives.
The orchestra continues playing a wide variety of shows, including free library performances. Yeates said the organization wants to diversify its age demographic by performing soundtracks to video games and popular movie franchises. This weekend the symphony is performing the soundtrack to the first Harry Potter movie.
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