Hazel Friedman
The Cape Town Symphony Orchestra (CTSO) will close unless R2-million is found before next Tuesday. This is the warning of CTSO publicist Shirley de Kock, who has embarked on a desperate rescue mission to save the beleagured orchestra.
If the 82-year old veteran goes under, De Kock says, the future of the SABC’s National Symphony Orchestra (NSO) and the Natal Philharmonic Orchestra (NPO) the mainsprings of South African classical music will also be in jeopardy.
The crisis comes in the aftermath of the government’s White Paper on Arts Culture, Science and Technology, which advocates transforming the four performing arts councils (PACs) to partially funded “community theatres” and the establishment of a national arts council (NAC) to serve as a statutory body to allocate funds to deserving cultural projects.
In future the performing arts councils will have to line up alongside historically disadvantaged organisations for a slice of the meagre funding pie.
Said De Kock: “It forms part of Capab, so the CTSO will inevitably be severely affected by cutbacks. The only way for it to survive is to merge with the Cape Philharmonic Orchestra.” But before the merger can take place R10-million has to be found. To date the CTSO has only R8-million at its disposal.
“We are appealing to the corporate sector to assist in providing the extra R2-million, but it seems they are more willing to plunge millions into a rugby match than contribute to an art form that benefits everyone,” De Kock said.
Also of concern is the financial situation of the National Symphony Orchestra (NSO) which belongs to the SABC. It is widely known that SABC budget cutbacks are likely to hit the NSO harder than any other SABC sector. This means South Africa’s two major cities are in danger of losing their classical orchestras.
On the eve of his departure for America last week, Archbishop Desmond Tutu called for Cape Town’s citizens and corporations to help secure classical music.