The music stops for the Delaware Symphony

The Delaware Symphony Orchestra has announced it doesn’t have the financial resources to make it through the 2012-2013 concert season. So, it will cancel its performances.

The announcement came out in a May 31st letter to orchestra musicians. The announcement can also be found on the the DSO website. It is now the only item that is active on the website.

In that letter, Board Chair Ann Hamilton writes, “It is a regrettable financial situation that mirrors what many of the nation’s other orchestras and cultural institutions have experienced over the past few years.” The Philadelphia Orchestra, for example, declared bankruptcy to deal with its financial situation.

Hamilton said the current DSO season could not have been completed without a large donation from Gerret and Tatiana Copeland. The Delaware philanthropic couple had the orchestra hall at the Wilmington Grand Opera House dedicated to them last fall.

The Board will hold a closed door meeting Monday to begin the process of designing a new fiscal plan for the Orchestra’s future. It is hoped through a combination of fund raising and other fiscal planning the DSO can continue again.

The letter adds they will be seeking input from David Amado, the orchestra maestro. However, it does not address what will happen to Amado and the other members of the orchestra during this time. The News Journal reports the current contract for the orchestra members expires at the end of August.

Amado didn’t directly address financial issues with DSO in a sit down interview with First last June. He did says the arts are always the first thing to be cut. He described the current economic climate as horrendous, but didn’t look at this time as any worse than any other time.

The DSO was born in 1929 through a merger of the Wilmington Symphony and the Wilmington Music School. Amado and the orchestra were nominated in 2010 for a Latin Grammy award.

Here is Amado in June 2011 talking with WHYY about how the arts fits into our world.