Musicians come home to Atlanta Ballet pit
$200,000 gift restores orchestra for select shows
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
They’ll dance to live music again.
The Atlanta Ballet, which sparked a firestorm of controversy in 2006 when it scrapped its orchestra to cut costs, will return musicians to the pit for much of the 2008-2009 season, beginning Oct. 23 with “Swan Lake.”
Executive director Barry Hughson reached a deal last week with the Atlanta Federation of Musicians union to contract the orchestra for select performances.
The deal is for the current season only, made possible by a one-year, $200,000 gift from Patti Wallace, a trustee of the ballet who keeps a condo at Midtown’s Four Seasons hotel and lives in Montgomery, Ala., where she runs a nursing and rehabilitation management company.
“I fell in love with the Atlanta Ballet many years ago,” Wallace said, “and I’ve always believed in the special importance of an orchestra with the ballet.”
In terms of philanthropy, she said the gift was also meant “to raise the bar for the trustees. I wanted to set an example for the others.”
Another Atlanta Ballet trustee, Kristine Robison, pledged $50,000 to fund a conductor for the season.
The professional, unionized orchestra — up to 48 musicians, same size as before they switched to recorded music — will accompany “Swan Lake” in October, “Dracula” in February and the world premiere of artistic director John McFall’s “Don Quixote” in May. For these three shows, the ballet will perform at the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre.
The ballet’s “The Nutcracker” — a hugely popular cash cow that remains at the Fox Theatre in Midtown — will be danced to live music only for its opening weekend, Dec. 5-7. Recorded music will be heard at the remaining performances.
With an annual budget of almost $8 million, the Atlanta Ballet is Georgia’s only fully professional dance company and, at 79, the nation’s oldest in continuous existence. In addition to scrapping the orchestra in 2006 in an attempt to right its financial tilt, the ballet sold its Midtown headquarters last year to retire a $2.75 million debt. The company will move into cheaper digs in a renovated warehouse in northwest Atlanta.
Earlier this year, the ballet signed a five-year contract to perform at the Cobb Energy center, joining the Atlanta Opera and Atlanta Broadway Series as the venue’s resident companies.
Soon after Hughson was hired last year, he crafted a five-year business plan that included restoring the orchestra in the 2009-10 season.
“With the success of the move to Cobb,” Hughson said, “I felt there was momentum to accelerate the return to live music. We felt a single donor could show that we’re getting out of crisis management.”
After the ballet did not renew its orchestral contract in 2006, protesters greeted audiences outside the theater with picket signs (“Live Ballet Needs Live Music!”). Under the old contract, each rank-and-file musician earned about $110 per rehearsal and performance, totalling less than $6,000 a year. The new contract calls for $118 per session.
McFall, who led the company as both artistic director and CEO when the decision was made to use recorded music, said he’s relieved the orchestra will return.
“Speaking for artists,” McFall said, “when you use audio tape it’s a little predictable, needless to say. Performing to live music, there’s a richness and it’s a more complete experience. For the patrons, too.”
Freelance musician Charae Krueger, who was principal cellist in the old ballet orchestra and sits in the same seat for the Atlanta Opera Orchestra, expects the ballet to rehire the same people.
“In our [union] meetings we were just really happy that there’s money again to pay us,” she said.
Wallace has been a regular major donor, especially to the company’s annual fund, which helps cover payroll costs. Her $200,000 gift for the orchestra is her largest to the company, although not the largest in its history, Hughson said.
The plan is to continue with live music past the current season, although the ballet still needs to find orchestra funds for the future.
“We intend to keep them playing,” Hughson said, “but we’re not out of the woods; we have a long way to go to meet our financial responsibilities.”
