Court filings list Philadelphia Orchestra bankruptcy costs
The Philadelphia Inquirer Blog - Artswatch
Court filings list Philadelphia Orchestra bankruptcy costs
Peter Dobrin, Inquirer Classical Music Critic
Final applications for payment have been submitted by the firms handling the Philadelphia Orchestra Association's bankruptcy. Fees claimed by the seven major professionals seem to support the estimate previously given by the orchestra: just below $10 million.
The fees listed in court papers over the past few days only go back as far as the bankruptcy filing itself in the spring of 2011, and the orchestra racked up bills well before then as it researched the option of chapter 11.
The top three billers (from 4/16/11 to 7/30/2012):
- Dilworth Paxson: $3.04 million, plus $75,000 in expenses. Dilworth's chairman is a member of the orchestra board.
- Alvarez & Marsal: $1.55 million, $102,000 in expenses.
- Curley, Hessinger & Johnsrud: $777,000, plus $6,885 in expenses. Curley is the firm that handled the orchestra's labor relations, so you might view some of their fee as being incurred in a normal negotiating year, and some specific to the bankruptcy.
It's not yet clear whether the strategy taken in Philadelphia will be emulated at orchestras elsewhere, though a recent piece in Bloomberg Businessweek certainly reads like an endorsement of the idea:
Struggling symphony orchestras that should consider using federal bankruptcy courts to stabilize their finances include those with runaway expenses similar to Philadelphia’s, said Lawrence G. McMichael, a lawyer for the orchestra in its bankruptcy case.
If a symphony faces contract and pension obligations it can’t afford, owes debt it can’t pay, or needs financing it can’t get, bankruptcy might be a good option, said McMichael, of the Philadelphia law firm Dilworth Paxson LLP.
The entire piece is here.
Of course McMichael is going to advocate for bankruptcy, that's how his firm made $3 million while the musicians had to take steep pay and pension cuts. How about a magazine spread comparing the incompetently managed Philadelphia Orchestra with its piers like Boston, NY, LA, and Chicago? They don't seem to have trouble raising enough money or putting butts in seats to support a world-class orchestra. And yet our orchestra is being compared with other lower-tier symphonies that have gone under. What a shame, because the music is still terrific.— CoolZanna- In the end, the bankruptcy saved very little. The forced pay-cuts will have their long-term effects. The best players will aspire for the best jobs. That used to be here. And no, there is not an unlimited supply of young talent out "there" waiting to jump in and fill the vacancies. The training is not what it should be, and experience is non-existent. Does anyone remember when musicians left Big Five Orchestras to come here? It's true, but not anymore. The tide is going out, now. Watch, listen, and weep.— altekakker
Peter Dobrin is a classical music critic and culture writer for The Inquirer. Since 1989, he has written music reviews, features, news and commentary for the paper, covering such topics as the Philadelphia Museum of Art at the Venice Biennale, expansion of the Curtis Institute of Music, the Philadelphia Orchestra's bankruptcy declaration in 2011, Philadelphia's evolving performing arts center and the general health of arts and culture.
Dobrin was a French horn player. He earned an undergraduate degree in performance from the University of Miami, and received a master's degree in music criticism from the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University, where he studied with Elliott Galkin. He has no time to practice today.
