Listen up, people! Literally. PNC Foundation and The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra just put a galaxy of fantastic music within the reach of all.
A $1 million grant from the foundation, a charitable arm of The PNC Financial Services Group, cuts ticket prices at Meyerhoff Symphony Hall to $25.
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This is a fitting tribute to the Meyerhoff?s 25th anniversary and inaugural season of new music director Marin Alsop. It?s an appropriate hello from Pittsburgh-based PNC, which Tuesday merged with Baltimore-based Mercantile Bankshares.
The calendar of more than 150 events Alsop and BSO composed for 2007-08 is an eight-octave range of programming that weaves baroque, classical and modern works into a veritable 10-month symphony of events with something for everyone.
Children, families, longtime patrons, scholars, the curious and even those merely seeking an incredible new experience now can afford to savor one of the best orchestras in the world.
This is the most effective way to make fine arts available to a wider range of people. Crude government subsidies generally, over time, just weaken institutions.
Philanthropic private citizens, businesses and their foundations can target need and demand results making them stronger.
A perfect example is the Joseph and Harvey Meyerhoff Family Charitable Fund?s $1 million challenge grant. It matches dollar for dollar every donation above $5,000. Since November, symphony supporters gave $300,000.
Those donors, the Meyerhoff family, PNC and the thousands of area businesses and residents who support BSO are doing a lot more than helping a great institution while having a great time.
They are building a better place here. Rich arts and culture are fundamentalfactors in quality of life, which increasingly is in the top echelon of reasons businesses and key employees relocate to or stay in an area. That means arts are essential to economic development.
The harmony is total. A National Endowment for the Arts study, The Arts and Civic Engagement: Involved in Arts, Involved in Life,”showed that those who participate in the arts are better citizens. They engage in positive civic and individual activities at significantly higher rates than non-arts participants.
Argue forever cause and effect. Never deny the exponential positive impact. A great symphony orchestra concert is a transcendental experience. It lifts us and transforms us.
The more of us who go, the better. Find out how at 9 a.m. Saturday when the BSO hosts a sign-up at the Meyerhoff. Meet musicians. Pick a seat. Select from the brilliant array of concerts. Most of all, get in on the best entertainment ? well, it?s a lot more than entertainment ? bargain in the world. And if possible, contribute to a great cause.
BSO Open House
» When: 9 a.m. to noon, Saturday
» Where: The Meyerhoff, 1212 Cathedral St; free parking.
» What: Buy subscription tickets; “test drive” seats; meet Marin Alsop and musicians; have coffee and donuts
» Why: Celebrate 25th anniversary of the Meyerhoff and Alsop?s innaugural season
