Chapter One: CLE Orchestra Support
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2016-12-08T20:51:59-08:00
Founded in 1918, The Cleveland Orchestra has grown to become one of the world’s best orchestras. A ticket to a concert is a gateway to a night of magnificent music in an absolutely stunning concert hall. But the Cleveland Orchestra offers the community much more than a spectacular show. The orchestra has numerous focuses, including: musical excellence, serving the community, future audiences, innovative programming, tradition of community support, and evolving greatness. By focusing on these elements, the orchestra hopes to achieve many goals in the upcoming years, including: “to continue the Orchestra’s legendary command of musical excellence, to renew its focus on fully serving the communities where it performs through concerts, engagement, and music education, to develop the youngest audience of any orchestra, to build on its tradition of community support and financial strength, and to move forward into the Orchestra’s next century with an unshakable commitment to innovation and a fearless pursuit of success”(Cleveland Orchestra website).
Support for the orchestra comes in a variety of ways, two of which are volunteerism and donations. One volunteering opportunity is to join one of two volunteer committees. The Women’s Committee of the Cleveland Orchestra focuses its efforts on music education, service, and fundraising. And, although the name may suggest otherwise, the group is open to men as well. The other committee is the Blossom Friends of the Cleveland Orchestra, which assists with the promotion and execution of each summer’s Blossom Musical Festival. Volunteers can also work as ushers or tour guides, or in the orchestra store. For each concert season, over 400 people provide service in these ways. Volunteers also make up the choruses. Close to 300 vocalists donate their time and voice to the performance groups. These choruses help distinguish the Cleveland Orchestra because there are only a few professionally trained, all volunteer choruses associated with an American professional orchestra.
Donations are an extremely important form of support for the Cleveland Orchestra. Thousands of donors help support more than 40% of the annual costs of concert production, maintenance of Severance Hall and Blossom Music Center, and education and community engagement programs. The simplest form of donation is through annual support. It is very flexible, and allows a donor to pay what he or she wants, when he or she wants. Those who contribute $2,500 or more earn the title of Leadership Donor, and receive recognition in the program books. In total, the gifts from Leadership Donors account for nearly $3,000,000 in orchestra support each year. Donations can also be in the form of legacy giving, which includes bequests, charitable gift annuities, and insurance policies. Other forms of support for the orchestra are corporate support, foundation support, and public support.
