They played for Fantasia and debuted works by Stravinsky, Mahler, and Rachmaninoff, but about a month ago, the Philadelphia Orchestra filed for bankruptcy protection. What’s sad about this is that many city orchestras have been struggling in recent years, a tragedy in an age where tens of millions of dollars (or more) go to the ridiculous and outrageous in music and the few remaining bastions of actual culture rather than mere popular culture are fading rapidly. According to Bloomberg, Detroit’s symphony was on strike for 6 months, Baltimore closed in 2009 and New York City (!) Opera is expecting a fourth annual deficit this year. They’re not going away, just reorganizing, but this is a fairly common development in a sad anti-cultural trend we’re seeing today. And it’s not just music. Ballet companies have been struggling for quite some time, laying off younger talent if not just shutting down altogether. So the real question is whether enough people remain to support true art.
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