New Jersey Symphony Taps Endowment
July 20, 2006 | Read Time: 1 minute
After a series of setbacks related to the acquisition of 30 rare string instruments, officials at the New Jersey Symphony say they plan to report a $4.2-million deficit for last season, and will use $3.1-million of the orchestra’s endowment to cover costs for this year’s performing season, The New York Times reports.
In 2003, the orchestra borrowed $17-million to buy the instruments from the philanthropist Herbert Axelrod, who was later sentenced to prison on unrelated tax-fraud charges.
The orchestra expected to raise money from private donors to pay back the loan, said Stephen Sichak, the symphony’s interim president, but bad publicity from an internal audit that blamed orchestra officials for deceiving the board and the public about the value of the instruments made fund raising difficult, he said.
