News
June 30, 2008
Raleigh Extends North Carolina Symphony's Lease To 2030
Mayor Charles Meeker and North Carolina Symphony President David Worters today announced an enhanced relationship between the City of Raleigh and the state’s official orchestra.
Mayor Meeker announced that the City is extending its lease by a dozen years, keeping the symphony in its current home – Meymandi Concert Hall in the Progress Energy Center for the Performing Arts – through 2030.
Nearly half of the symphony’s annual concerts are performed in the downtown Raleigh venue. The mayor said that the positive impact of having a world-class orchestra in residence and offering the “entire world of music” to our children and neighbors is an asset beyond measure.
Until recently, the symphony’s business offices were housed in the lower floor of Raleigh Memorial Auditorium. In exchange for the symphony moving these offices and freeing up this valuable square footage for City use, the City is doubling its annual financial support of the symphony to $200,000. The City of Raleigh began special funding to the North Carolina Symphony in 1997, giving $50,000 annually through 2003. In 2004 the annual support was doubled to $100,000.
“Even though the economy has slowed, we believe in our future and we will not neglect those treasures that contribute so significantly to making Raleigh America’s most livable city,” Mayor Meeker said. “I am so pleased to announce the City’s enhanced support for the North Carolina Symphony, which has helped to make Raleigh a very special city since its formation 76 years ago.”
Mayor Meeker pointed to the significance of both the North Carolina Symphony and Raleigh Memorial Auditorium being created in 1932, the bleak days of the Great Depression. “Raleigh has always known that great music and the performing arts were as essential to our city and its people as the most basic services, and they invested in them even during those economically ominous times,” he said.
“We are so pleased that the City recognizes and supports the tremendous value that the arts bring to a vibrant downtown,” Mr. Worters said. “We view ourselves as partners and the North Carolina Symphony is proud to call Raleigh its home.”
The North Carolina Symphony’s first performance was given in the Capital City, at Meredith College’s auditorium on March 16, 1932. Memorial Auditorium was the symphony’s home from 1975 until the opening of Meymandi Concert Hall in the Progress Energy Center for the Performing Arts in 2001. The symphony contributed $4 million for construction of the performing arts center to assure that the design of the concert hall was specialized to the acoustical properties of music. Raleigh arts patron, Dr. Assad Meymandi, made a gift of $2 million in his family’s name for the 1,700-seat concert hall.
Economic Impact
Last year, the North Carolina Symphony performed 76 of its 175 concerts in Meymandi Concert Hall. The symphony estimates that its $13 million budget has a total economic impact of $34 million. Given that 43 percent of its concerts are given in Raleigh, it is estimated that these 76 performances have an economic impact of $14,750,000 on the Capital City. That equates to a return of 74 times on each of the $200,000 the City is giving annually to the symphony.
The following is a look at the types of concerts the symphony gave in Meymandi Concert Hall during the 2007-08 season:
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25 classical concerts;
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19 pops concerts;
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three Friday Favorites (i.e. daytime classical, shorter format);
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five Young People’s Concerts (i.e. Saturday morning concerts for kids with their parents);
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14 education concerts for school children (i.e. yellow school bus concerts); and,
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11 special events (New Year’s to 75th anniversary gala, with programming ranging from the Messiah to the Gospel Christmas show).
Prepared by:
Jayne Kirkpatrick
Director
Public Affairs Department
For More Information Contact:
Jayne Kirkpatrick
Director
Public Affairs Department
222 West Hargett Street
Raleigh, NC 27602
919-890-3100
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