Band, orchestra paid Royal concert fee

Press, 21 April 1977, Page 6

Band, orchestra paid Royal concert fee

The Skellerup Woolston] band has received S5OO for its part in the Royal concert in! Christchurch in March. It applied when it discovered that the Canterbury Orchestra had been paid $l5OO. The Town Hall Board of Management granted the fee yesterday after the band sub-' mitted an itemised account of $5OO. The band was “amazed” to hear the Canterbury Orchestra had charged a fee of $l5OO when it had been told that “performance fees would, not be paid to any participat-i ing groups.” said the band’s' secretarv in a letter to the board. The band returned a cheque i of $lOO. The same amount had been sent bv the board to all groups that had parti-, cipated in the concert. Tn defence of the orchestra fee. the acting chairman (Mr H. W. Bennett) said that the Canterbury Orchestra was a “professional orchestra with commitments to meet towards its players who were members of the Musician’s Union.” Other participants contri-

buted voluntarily, and all re-1 ceived a grant of $lOO. The I Skellerup Woolston band did not normally charge and hence had fallen into the category of voluntary groups, receiving the $lOO grant, he said. However, it merited a ihigher sum, because its efforts ha- 1 been “greater” than that of other participating groups. The board might take care in the future that when it i negotiated with participating i groups before a concert it “put it on the line” for everyone. said Cr Mollie Clark. I The concert organisers had i attempted to do this, said the (Town Hall manager (Mr B. P. I Connell), but the fee asked by I the orchestra had been a conjtingencv the board had to I meet.

I The board should not be taken to task over the anom[alv. said Mr Bennett. It was a case of trving to satisfy everyone who participated without digging too far into the profits that were to be , awarded to a charity. .! Cr Helen Garrett; Why was

Ithe Christchurch Symphony Orchestra not invited to ac-; company the New Zealand Ballet Company, instead of I the Canterbury Orchestra? Mr Connell: Because the New Zealand Ballet Company requested the services of the Canterbury Orchestra. The Christchurch Symphony Orchestra said in a letter to the board that it could have performed for “some hundreds of dollars less.” Two-thirds of the ChristI church Royal concert proceeds of $2OOO have been awarded by the board to the I Young Women’s Christian Association, Christchurch, and the rest to the Christchurch Children’s Holiday , Camps Trust. There were three applic- ■ ants; the other was the Save the Children Fund, North ; Canterbury. The board decided that the money should I go to a Christchurch Organi isation, and that the Y.W.C.A. : I received little assistance from (local bodies, and had to re;l furbish its hostel.