IN THE BLACK: Dance Kaleidoscope artistic director David Hochoy coaches DK dancer Melanie Schreiber. The city’s veteran modern dance company has a history of keeping annual budgets in the black, but some cutbacks had to be made.Copyright 2006 The Indianapolis Star. All rights reserved. Use of this site signifies your agreement to the Terms of Service.

Music, dance groups make changes to avoid deficits
By Whitney Smith
whitney.smith@indystar.com
April 9, 2006

Although Ballet Internationale closed last fall due to financial problems, most of the city’s best-known classical music and dance groups are not saddled with large deficits.
However, in the quest to improve financial standing and concert attendance, they all hope to make their groups more accessible. Some have experimented with new collaborations, while others have focused on small-scale events or reached out to younger, more diverse audiences.
The Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra has progressed from six-figure deficits during the 2001-02 and 2002-03 seasons to small surpluses. The ISO has been able to rely on its substantial endowment, but also has been trying to make concerts more of an entertainment experience.
The International Violin Competition of Indianapolis posted a $37,712 deficit at the end of 2004-05 — the latest season with available budget figures. But annual budgets can vary dramatically, depending on the timing of large gifts. Managers plan budgets in four-year cycles because the contest is quadrennial.
The Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra’s budgets hover at just under $500,000. A recent move from Clowes Hall to the smaller Indiana History Center’s Basile Theater hasn’t improved attendance as expected, but the orchestra is focusing on small-scale chamber programs that may help in the long run.
Dance Kaleidoscope has been balancing its annual budgets for the past 12 seasons and has been trying to reach out to audiences through diverse programming and collaborations with other groups.
Here’s a more detailed look at each organization.
Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra

Like many American orchestras, the Indianapolis Symphony battled large deficits after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. The latest was in 2002-03 — a $545,000 deficit on a $23.4 million budget. Since then, the ISO has had modest surpluses — $5,466 on a $24 million budget in 2003-04 and $10,820 on a $24.5 million budget in 2004-05.
“In order to turn the symphony’s fortunes around, there was a great deal of work that went into looking very carefully at the budgets and income potential,” said Simon Crookall, who has been the ISO’s president and CEO since January 2005.
Crookall said the ISO receives revenue from its $112.3 million endowment, donations and earned income (including ticket sales) — “in roughly equal portions.”
“In the time since I’ve been here, part of the theme of our discussion has been that the endowment income is relatively fixed,” Crookall said. “Contributions we have been able to increase fairly dramatically the past three, four years, but there’s a limit to how much we can push that upward. In the current year, what we’re concentrating on is to try to maximize income from ticket sales.”
“We’ve been trying to enhance the concert experience,” said Ana Papakhian, the ISO’s director of communications. For the recent celebration of the 250th anniversary of Mozart’s birth, the orchestra devised a festival, not only featuring concerts, but also a film, 18th-century dancing and a billiards demonstration.
International Violin Competition of Indianapolis

Year-to-year budgets for the International Violin Competition of Indianapolis vary significantly, said executive director Glen Kwok. In 2002-03 — the final year of the 2002 competition budget cycle — there was a $312,893 deficit, but in 2003-04, the organization posted a $520,512 surplus.
Kwok said such variations are planned, to an extent. “Our goal is to balance the budget for each quadrennial period, not annually,” he said. “Individual years may show a surplus or a deficit depending upon timing of gifts.”
For example, a large donation that was earmarked for the next Violin Competition opening in September, but presented back in 2003-04, accounts for some of the six-figure surplus that year.
The competition endowment, named for co-founder Josef Gingold, contained $1.8 million as of Oct. 31.
Attendance at concerts during the Violin Competition’s 2004-05 season averaged 50 percent, but is closer to 66 percent of capacity this season, Kwok said. He thinks attendance has improved because the Violin Competition is producing only six concerts per season featuring competition laureates, rather than the 11 concerts in past seasons, which also included the local Suzuki & Friends and the Ronen Chamber ensembles.
“Many of our audience members are the same people going to the symphony, the opera, the Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra and Ensemble Music Society,” Kwok said. “By reducing the number of concerts to six, they have a greater chance at attending more of our events.”
Dance Kaleidoscope

The city’s veteran modern dance company has a history of keeping annual budgets in the black, and it has tried to boost attendance through diverse programming, collaborating with other groups and a move from the old Indianapolis Civic Theatre to the Indiana Repertory Theatre.
When DK’s directors decided to present “I Got Gershwin” in early January, they didn’t know the Indianapolis Symphony had planned a Gershwin show for the same weekend. When they found out, they decided to team up to get the word out about both.
Jan Virgin, DK’s executive director, said the Gershwin show broke all attendance records with 2,306 patrons. She believes that a combined direct-mail campaign helped the dance company access people it might not have reached otherwise.
Dance Kaleidoscope crossed a financial milestone at the end of its 2004-05 season, when expenses totaled $1,048,000. Virgin said the company posted surpluses of $4,206 in 2003-04 and $8,699 in 2004-05.
To balance budgets, DK has occasionally had to make cutbacks. Most recently, it went two years without rehearsal and education directors.
Virgin said DK has a small endowment of $1,700.
Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra

Chad Miller, the Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra’s executive director, said budgets for the small-scale professional orchestra have been fairly consistent the last three seasons, between $450,000 and $470,000.
The ICO’s largest recent deficit, $72,000, came in 2002-03. In May 2003, the orchestra cancelled its final concert of the season to avoid further debt. At the time, Miller said the ICO had been coping with a decline in income from contract services.
For a group its size, Miller said the Chamber Orchestra is lucky to have an endowment that contained $1,737,000 as of June.
After performing at the 2,096-seat Clowes Hall for years, the orchestra, led by British-born conductor Kirk Trevor, moved to the Indiana History Center’s roughly 300-seat Basile Theater hoping that audiences would find an intimate space more suitable.
Miller said he has been disappointed that “our audience numbers have not really changed since we went to the History Center, as far as the number of people in the hall.”
Efforts to increase attendance are concentrating on making Chamber Orchestra concerts more intimate. Miller said that “Chamber Conversations,” the ICO’s newest series involving small groups of instruments, plus narration, “is designed both to reach our current audiences and younger audiences looking for something a little different.”
  Attendance Operating Surplus/Deficit
Current (average paid capacity) Budget (*denotes deficit)
Organization Endowment 2004-2005 2004-2005 2004-2005
Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra $112.3 million 71% $24.5 million $10,820
Indianapolis Opera $895,000 80% $2.7 million $258,000*
International Violin Competition $1.8 million 50% $533,890 $37,712*
Dance Kaleidoscope $1700 85% $1 million $8,699
Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra $1.7 million 50% $452,830 $306

Note: 2004-05 is the most recent season with available budget figures.

Source: Star staff research