Crashing economy, you say? Shhh, don’t tell the folks at the new DC Philharmonic. They not only announced the launch of their ensemble last week (at a time when many such organizations were drafting applications for emergency NEA dollars to keep their operations running), but noted that they would be an orchestra that “will be self-supporting and that can reject the standard nonprofit model.” Conductor John Baltimore told the Washington Post:
You just don’t find this level of educated upper-middle-class African American income anywhere else in the United State…I am an African American myself. I believe wholeheartedly that Washington in particular has this unique demographic of educated, upper-class, recession-proof government wage-earners that, if this music was marketed to them and they could see that this music is for them, they would be supportive of it.
MTG will be watching this venture with great interest. Good luck to them!