Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony ask regional council for $100K in support

By Jonathan Strom

At a regional council meeting on Wednesday, a delegation from the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony asked council for a one-time grant of $100,000. 

Andrew Bennett, the symphony's executive director, said the organization is still working to recover from the COVID pandemic. 

“Directly as a result of the pandemic, we're having to weather what is a temporary perfect storm in terms of cash flow and budget,” he said. 

Although audiences can now return to live performances, Ian Whitman, a member of the orchestra, said not everyone is comfortable doing so. 

“Overall, sales numbers look set to fall short of pre-pandemic levels, by about $500,000 which is about 10 per cent of our annual revenue,” said Whitman. 

K-W Symphony is confident that it will return to full audiences in the next year or two. It also has a strategic plan with the goal of increasing outreach by 50 per cent in the next five years. 

“KWS is posed to take great advantage of a growing region especially as our programming has diversified significantly in order to serve a diversifying population,” said Bennett.

Some of the concerts mentioned in the presentation that were popular in the past year included Murdoch Mysteries, KW Glee, and Yuletide. 

Regional council is expected to receive a full report on the matter on February 7. 

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