And The Great Recession Just Grinds On: Syracuse Symphony In Chapter 7, Bank To Seize And Liquidate Assets

This is another sad moment for the musical life of the nation.

Syracuse, NY - In the math of bankruptcy court, the case of Syracuse Symphony Orchestra Inc. seems easy enough.

The folded symphony has $327,000 worth of stuff and $4 million in liabilities.

M&T Bank, the biggest secured creditor, is likely to get everything, leaving nothing for the hundreds of unpaid vendors and staff and people who bought concert tickets they could not use.

“I’m very sorry,” trustee Mary Fangio said at the creditors hearing Wednesday afternoon in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Syracuse.

In the court, Philip MacArthur and Bill Harris were thinking about how to keep the SSO’s library of sheet music. They are musicians, MacArthur on the oboe, and Harris, on the trombone, who retired and now lead the union that represents the musicians’ contract with the SSO. With their colleagues, they made a career’s worth of hand-written notes on the sheet music they say can never be replaced.

Here's hoping M&T will see reason, and convey the library to a legitimate organization nearby, such as a university or public library, so it can be preserved and one day put back into use.

It has nearly zero cash value, in that it is organized around the local situation and tradition, and would not be of that much use elsewhere. Yet, to replace it from the ground up would require much cash and years of work.

Here's wishing the city and orchestra well.