Hundreds show their support at benefit concert for K-W Symphony musicians

A benefit concert supporting the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony musicians is proving that there’s still a demand for classical music in Waterloo Region.

It’s been more than a month since the symphony suddenly declared bankruptcy, leaving both musicians and employees out of work.

Wednesday night’s concert started at 7:30 p.m. at First United Church in Waterloo.

Former symphony musicians and members of the Penderecki String Quartet practiced ahead of the event with Grammy Award-winning pianist Emanuel Ax.

“[I felt] very comfortable. They sound terrific,” Ax said after rehearsals.

He donated his time to perform as Ax said all musicians need support.

“We have to practice hard. Work hard. We do it because we love music,” he said.

SOLD OUT SHOW

The show was planned at the last minute, only two weeks in advance, and they sold all 500 seats quickly.

“We sold out in less than 24 hours. Then we released additional ticketing and we again sold out in 12 hours,” said cellist Kendra Grittani.

Tickets were $40 and proceeds from the concert will directly support the symphony musicians.

So far, a fundraiser started by the musicians has raised almost $500,000.

“We're using it to fund events like this. We've used part of it to support the musicians that were in emergency financial situations,” said Grittani.

They want the public to know the money will also be used to eventually rebuild the organization.

“That's our long-term goal and we are always working towards that behind the scenes,” Grittani said.

“A GRIEVING PERIOD”

The bankruptcy announcement came in September, less than a week after the symphony abruptly cancelled its upcoming season and days after leadership announced they needed to secure $2 million by the end of the week to avoid insolvency.

The chair of the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony’s board of directors blamed their downfall, in part, to poor cash flow from ticket sales.

The music director, Andrei Feher, was the conductor for part of the benefit concert and said it’s been a hard month and a half for staff and musicians.

“It's a real grieving period,” he said.

Feher said he hopes benefit concerts like this will help get musicians back together again and he said it’s important to keep doing concerts to keep the interest in the community alive.

“I think something like this keeps the momentum going,” said Feher.

WHAT’S NEXT

Grittani said she’s still getting by and booking gigs, but she admitted many of her fellow musicians are still struggling.

“Trying to take some contracting gigs to fill up the time and the work that I’ve lost,” she said.

Musicians with the K-W Symphony will be doing more shows in the coming weeks and months. Some are local and others are in neighbouring communities.

The musicians said you can keep up to date on where they’ll be on their Facebook page.