🔒PPP loans help Hartford Symphony Orchestra survive shutdown as return of in-person events nears

After 16 months cut off from performing in front of in-person audiences, the Hartford Symphony Orchestra is thinking big again.

“But we’re not completely out of the woods yet,” says HSO Executive Director Steve Collins.

Still, after a 2020-2021 season absent from its normal in-person audiences, the HSO will be performing in front of outdoor crowds in July at the Talcott Mountain Music Festival in Simsbury. Indoor concerts return Oct. 1, when HSO kicks off its 78th season at The Bushnell’s Belding Theater.

Financially the shutdown — which began in mid-March 2020, hitting the second half of HSO’s fiscal year and continuing its impact through this spring — was a fiscal blow to the organization, just as it was heading into its third season of black ink.

“The first six months of our 2019-2020 season were the best we had probably in about 10 years,” says Collins. “The concerts were doing well, the subscriber base [of 1,400] was strong; we were doing great things artistically and our $10 million capital campaign was rolling along as it approached its conclusion.”

After decades of dire fiscal fortunes, including near-bankruptcy in 2015, New England’s second-largest symphony was the most financially stable it’s been in years. Much of that stability came in two ways: a 2016 agreement with the musicians’ union to restructure contracts, which created cost-savings; and a $10 million stability fundraising campaign, which surpassed its goal as of Feb. 2020.

Because of HSO’s strong cash position heading into the pandemic, the shutdown’s fiscal impact wasn’t felt dramatically until it began to drag on for months, says Collins.

For its 2020 fiscal year, which ended Aug. 31, HSO reported about $4 million in revenue, down from $5.3 million a year earlier, according to its annual report. It ended the fiscal year with a $195,915 loss, compared to a $50,319 surplus in the year-ago period, according to its annual report.

PPP funds helped

As the pandemic continued into the fall, then winter and this spring, HSO’s budget was buttressed by two federal Paycheck Protection Program loans — provided via Webster Bank — that totaled a little over $1 million.

“It helped keep things afloat,” and prevented the organization from having to take on long-term debt, Collins said.

“Those funds have been essential in making sure we can compensate our staff, as well as engage and compensate our musicians,” he said. “It also helped in producing digital media and staying engaged [with audiences]. Without that we’d be in a very, very dark place.”

He says every employee was impacted by furloughs and lost wages.

Collins says total HSO employee compensation from March 2020 to Aug. 2021 is estimated to be $1 million less compared to the year-ago period, “including over $1 million in the PPP loan funds distributed to employees. To put it another way, without the PPP loans, employee compensation would have been off by more than $2 million.”

With the federal loan help, HSO is projecting a $100,000 loss for its 2021 fiscal year.

“Now where we will finish up I can’t say because a lot needs to happen between now and the end of the summer to complete that picture,” Collins said.

‘Waiting not an option’

HSO Music Director Carolyn Kuan, who last month signed a new, two-year contract extending her tenure through May 2024, said during the pandemic “waiting until it was over was never an option.

“When weather was good we tried to perform outside, following the government recommendations, but sometimes we didn’t have a choice and everything had to go online,” she said. “If you’re not doing anything you can’t serve the people.”

Kuan, who celebrates her 10th year with HSO this year, says throughout all of the group’s pandemic adaptations, the organization’s fundamentals haven’t changed.

“We are here to serve our community,” she says. “Each decision was based on ‘how do we take care of everybody to the best of our ability;’ the administration, staff, musicians, board, audiences, community.”

HSO’s musicians were supported financially through almost all of the 2019-2020 season, even though part of it was canceled, says Candace Lammers, secretary-treasurer of Local 400 of the American Federation of Musicians, which represents HSO’s 86 musicians, including 31 members who make up its core orchestra.

“For the 2019-2020 season we made full payroll with the exception of that one week in April,” says Lammers.

But the 2020-2021 season has been a different story, she said.

“We were furloughed at the end of September and no musician had any income until December when the small ensembles started to record for streaming,” she says. “Core musicians will make between 3.5% and 23% of their wages for the [first half of the season]. The rest of the orchestra has not seen any income at all for 2020-2021, unless they happen to sub into a small ensemble.”

“We were in constant communication during the pandemic [with management],” added Lammers, especially regarding safety protocols. “For the most part it was cordial but there will always be some differences.”

New approaches

During the pandemic, digital media has kept things moving for HSO on several levels. Its first major digital project was its fundraising gala in April 2020 at the height of the outbreak and shutdown.

“We took the plunge and I’m so glad we did,” says Collins. “Although there were growing pains, it gave us confidence and we positioned ourselves to do what we’ve been doing for the last 13 months, which is producing online content.”

The online gala raised nearly $300,000, which was comparable to previous fundraisers.

“It’s not like before COVID we didn’t do any digital media,” Collins said. “We had some experience producing audio and video recordings. We weren’t starting from ground zero.”

Collins says HSO’s online role is being continually reevaluated but “it will be part of our core programming going forward. We haven’t taken on additional staff and I don’t expect that we will any time soon. It’s more about aligning staff responsibilities and expectations with the new reality and partnering outside our organization, working with vendors that we have developed tight partnerships with.”

The digital role, he says, will be supplemental, both in its ability to generate earned revenue, “and in communicating our artistic message. But it certainly has value in reaching people who can’t come to concerts in person. It can also help us reach those who are unfamiliar with what we do. But it’s not a game changer as a revenue source. It’s more a supplemental institutional marketing need.”

Collins says his biggest concern now is the extent to which audiences return this summer and fall, but overall he’s excited that live in-person events are coming back.

“What a long, strange trip it’s been,” he says.