/ 23 January 2000

TALKS ON TO SAVE NSO

THE cash-strapped National Symphony Orchestra, facing closure at the weekend, is involved in urgent talks with a number of potential sponsors Friday, NSO chairman Don MacRobert said on Friday. MacRobert said that he has been contacted by a banking group and a life assurance company, as well as a number of private citizens, offering to help save the 75-year-old orchestra. MacRobert on Thursday said that unless the NSO, the country’s premier orchestra, received funding pledges of R10-million by Sunday, it will have to close.

22