This week’s Channel 3 (WCAX) announcement that the Vermont Mozart Festival, after 36 years, may have presented its final concert caught most listeners by surprise. How can it be that one of Vermont’s finest musical treasures and one of our nation’s premier summer music festivals is forced to end? Why?
What the Festival has experienced is a virtual tsunami of confluent problems: 1) for the second successive year weather has reduced ticket sales dramatically, a factor that can’t easily be overcome by a concert series that depends largely on the appeal of outdoor performances; 2) a serious economic downturn that has reduced ticket purchases as well as individual and corporate giving dramatically; and 3) the ever-present reality that ticket sales, in the best of years, represent only 40% of the funds needed to pay all the costs involved in producing each year’s Festival. So, here we are at the end of a third year of declining attendance and revenue. The consequence is that we now face a $330,000 cash shortfall. Clearly, we can not write contracts for 2010 without the money needed to back them up. If we were to write contracts for 2010 and failed to meet them we could, in addition to the debt, be subject to legal action.
I think it is important to affirm here that the day to day administration of the Festival is not responsible for this unhappy situation. The Festival officers, paid and volunteer, have been working hard to counter these increasingly difficult financial realities, but this combination of three major events was more than we could anticipate or overcome. You should know, too, that we have not given up, but we do not believe that it is our decision to ‘scuttle the ship.’ The Festival Board should not decide whether the Festival ends now or continues into an undetermined future. You, the people who love good music, buy tickets and make the contributions should make that decision. In reality, this is an election, and you are the voter.
Each of us can vote for or against by responding to this letter with a contribution that tells the Board your vote is to continue the Festival. If we combine our best efforts, as individuals and as corporations, we can raise the $330,000 we need to eliminate our debt. We need to complete this challenge by November 15 in order to know whether to begin negotiations for next year.
Raising $330,000 by November 15 is not an impossible task. If 330 of us will contribute $1,000 (in addition to what many of us already have contributed) we will reach our goal. Or, 1,000 of us could reach the needed goal by making an additional gift of $330. Each of us knows how much we can give in an emergency, and this certainly is an emergency for the Mozart Festival. Only you can decide how important the Mozart Festival is to you, your family, and our entire state community. Only you can help to keep this musical gem alive and well in Vermont. Your contribution is your vote!
In order to guarantee the Festival’s future, please respond with your contribution not later than November 15. You can do it quickly and easily at my First Giving page at www.firstgiving.com.johnhammeriii. If you have questions and/or suggestions, please call or e-mail at 802 425-4065 or HomeportVT@gmavt.net. Thank you!
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