Judge closes Philadelphia Orchestra bankruptcy case
The Philadelphia Inquirer Blog - Artswatch
Judge closes Philadelphia Orchestra bankruptcy case
Peter Dobrin, Inquirer Classical Music Critic
The Philadelphia Orchestra exited bankruptcy in July. But in the months since, the orchestra has been settling up debts and taking care of other administrative matters, and has been responsible for filing a certain amount of paperwork with U.S. Bankruptcy Court.
The reorganization was a significant chapter in the life of the organization, and as such, it's perhaps worth noting that with the signing of an order Wednesday by Judge Eric L. Frank, the bankruptcy cases of the Philadelphia Orchestra and Academy of Music are officially closed.
When it filed for Chapter 11 in April 2011, the Philadelphia Orchestra became the first major U.S. orchestra to declare bankruptcy.
Exiting bankruptcy is one thing. However, restoring musicians' pay and benefits to the levels of other top US orchestras is quite another.— NYMike- So where are the mega-bucks from the bankruptcy boosters? Wasn't the whole point of scrapping the pension because the big donors wouldn't pay out otherwise? Well now that they got their way they better start putting their money where their mouth was, because otherwise the risk the musicians took acquiescing to management and the board was too great. The bankruptcy cannot turn into a tool to just cut costs and never return the orchestra's pay back to its peer's level.— CoolZanna
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.
