The smelly mess in Philadelphia

In Philadelphia, obviously a LOT of money!

What is a great orchestra worth?

How many times shall I write of the debacle that has become of the bankruptcy proceedings in the Philadelphia Orchestra.  Just today Norman Lebrecht writes that "the entire exercise stinks to high heaven" and points to an investigative article from reporter Peter Dobrin.

As I have intimated before, in short the losers in this mess are the players and staff, whom the orchestra is attempting to avoid paying its contractually-agreed-to pension obligations.  The winners to date include:

• Bankruptcy lawyers Dillworth Paxson, L.L.P., which had contributed $75,000 to the orchestra and whose chair, Joseph H. Jacovini, is a member of the orchestra board, has thus far billed the orchestra fees totaling $1.05 million.
• Alvarez and Marsal Holdings, L.L.C., listed as the orchestra association's "bankruptcy adviser," has to date run up a tab of $833,365.  A & M's web page notes that, "Understanding what fiduciaries seek when selecting legal representation for reorganization, bankruptcy or receivership proceedings is very important for developing a successful collaboration between counsel and management."  Um, I'm at a loss here; hasn't the orchestra association already selected legal representation, albeit one with an obvious conflict of interest?

All of these bleeding dollars are on top of the lawyer's fees generated by the orchestra association's regular labor attorneys who are in the midst of negotiating a new contract with the players.  Their cost to date?  $203,616.

Thus far the orchestra association has spent some $2.4 million out of an initial estimate of $2.9 million for the entire process!

The piles of money being tossed out the windows of this venerable institution, the second truly "great" orchestra I ever heard live (the first was Cleveland) is reaching epic proportions.  One can only hope that the orchestra of Stokowski and Ormandy can survive.