Supportthearts - Can you be more specific about what has not yet been reported? Thanks.

By far the best columns you've written over the past year have been those dealing with the specifics of the Phantom Bankruptcy. What I'd like to read from you is the story of how a small, but über-powerful faction of the bloated and underperforming Board of Directors strong-armed the masses into accepting the idea that a bankruptcy filing, while not entirely legit, provided an easy "out" of at least four disastrous business decisions. Yes, I know you've written of this. But it's time for you to name names. It's time for the toxic element on this Board to be outed. It's time for you to place the blame for this civic tragedy directly where it belongs: On an ignorant, uncultured group of power brokers determined to stick it to the rank and file. They hired Allison, who couldn't get the hall built in Atlanta and left with more enemies than friends. They presided over the amputation of the educational and digital media departments, while placing personnel in high-level management positions who were and are completely unqualified to be there. This orchestra is falling apart at the seams, and not because a handful of players have taken teaching gigs to help compensate for the pay cut and a vaporized pension. It's falling apart because the Board and its team of legal thugs are too busy talking about hammers and where-are-they-going-to-go than to take this administration out of the vacuum it's been in for fifteen years. You're very good at naming names, Peter, and I think it's time that you called out the Board before they finish the job.

I believe the orchestra cannot be saved without shutting it down, getting a new board, and starting from scratch. There is no way the board will restore the financials to the promised levels. This process has been in place since the Wolf Report, during the Sell years.
The MET, NYPhil, LA, Chicago, and Boston have figured it out. The best players will play there. We will be stuck with the ones who can't do better. Philadelphia is falling right off the map. And when the orchestra folds, watch the Kimmel center collapse, and Center City will be taken over by the flash mobs.

The Metropolitan Opera raises enough money to fund a 400 million dollar budget every year, while our poor board can't pass the hat among themselves to keep our orchestra intact. Really, board? New York laughs at you.

It's rumored that the "entry fee" for a Met board member is 250k/year while the POA's is a measly 40k - mere pocket change for this cheapskate gang of thugs.

"Support the Arts" are you implying that the "small,über-powerful faction" may be profiting from the stratospheric litigation costs, because they are on the receiving end of the rainbow?

Well, that wasn't really what I was saying. But as you know, BoD member Joseph Jacovini is a partner at Dilworth Paxson, the firm representing the Association and which has been paid several million dollars to this point. So the dots aren't too hard to connect there. No, what I was really referring to is my understanding through various sources that the vast majority of the Board was interested in a different solution to the operating deficit-- one that did not involve a trumped-up bankruptcy claim. But a small number of Board members with extensive resources bullied the group as a whole (remember, we're talking about 70+ people here) into voting in favor of filing Chapter 11, under the implied threat of their being ousted from the Board.

The board has made it clear they will shut down if they lose the lawsuit with the union, which is likely. We have to face the reality that the Orchestra cannot be saved. We would be better served trying to start a new organization, with committed donors and minimal management. Let's remember, music is about the performers, and great music requires great artists to perform it, and that costs money. It does not require bloated, overpaid managements.

Anyone with a news tip or story suggestion is always welcome to contact me directly.

Here's a story: Great orchestra attacked, left to die.

I just read the New York Times review of the orchestra's performance at Carnegie Hall Tuesday. What an embarrassment! Half the article is about the myriad musicians leaving the orchestra.

I just read Mr. Smith's review.... As much as I revere the NYT, I wonder how a guy like this can possibly be trusted to write legitimate arts criticism. CoolZ is right... basically this piece was a reprint of Peter's Inquirer review of a few days before. He had nothing of substance to say about the performance itself, aside from a few from-the-playbook platitudes and stock imagery. It's not just arts management that's dying in this country; arts journalism is taking a similar nose dive.