The lights are dimmed, the audience hushed, the musicians of the Hawaii Symphony Orchestra at-the-ready. Executive Director Jonathan Parrish emerges on stage, soon joined by affable sidekick, Honolulu businessman Paul Kosasa. The familiar spiel begins: “Please thank tonight’s sponsors …”

Classical music is all about the money. Composers Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, even Elgar, Sibelius and Debussy, endured cycles of debt, often forced to render their creative souls into the service of demanding publishers, managers, even the ruling elite.

Today, and certainly in the symphonic stratosphere, money still reigns as government and donor dollars — or the lack thereof — determine which entities die, survive or thrive.

As the Hawaii Symphony Orchestra begins it’s new season, that situation is not lost on the symphony’s executives, its musicians and even its patrons.

Resurrected more than four years ago from the ruins of the bankrupted and discarded Honolulu Symphony, the renamed 84-piece ensemble inaugurates its fifth season on Oct. 1 at the Neal S. Blaisdell Concert Hall with a program of works by Brahms, Liszt and Rachmaninoff.

That the Hawaii Symphony exists is largely a result of careful, incremental rebuilding. And the organization is trying a number of creative programs and innovative efforts to make sure that effort continues to be a success.

Armed with a new two-year contract guaranteeing 15 weeks of subscription concerts, at a starting salary of $1,100 per week, members of the orchestra are scheduled to perform 12 classical and six pops programs.

With an endowment of $10 million to $11 million, and an annual operating budget of less than $4.2 million, the Hawaii Symphony relies on individual gifts, endowment monies, government and business support as well as ticket revenues accounting for around 40 percent of the budget.

The Hawaii Symphony must negotiate similar financial terrain as many other classical music ensembles throughout the country.

“New Jersey, Utah and North Carolina for a variety of historical reasons get substantial government support because they serve the entire state,” said Jesse Rosen, president and CEO of the League of American Orchestras, a network of about 800-member ensembles. “Yet some orchestras have no statewide funding at all. Each orchestra has to deal with its own set of circumstances.”

In a nod to pure commercialism, the Hawaii Symphony launched the first event of an experimental “Music That Rocks” series by joining a six-piece touring rock band to perform a tribute to Queen.

The performance reflects a growing national trend of musical pairings designed to attract new audiences, especially the young and preferably the rich, to the concert halls.

“I think this repertory issue is an enormous danger,” said pianist André Watts, who concludes the season in June with Rachmaninoff’s Second Concerto. “Unless you work on your craft all the time, the ability to play as a classical music ensemble deteriorates and you can lose your old classical audience that you had as a base.”

In 2009, beset by huge deficits and reduced revenues, the Honolulu Symphony filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization. Unable to sustain operating expenses, the orchestra in December 2010 filed for Chapter 7 liquidation and ceased operations.

Violinist Timothy Leong, who joined in 1981, remembers those dark days. “I would be sitting in my garage feeling so sad because we weren’t playing,” said Leong, also an architect with a practice in Kaimuki. “Groups of us played chamber music, but we’d sit around and moan and groan.

“I have my business, but I worry so much about my colleagues. Rent and feeding your kids never goes away.”

“We need to keep replenishing our audiences; we need to be more available and accessible to young students.” — Cellist Nancy Masaki

Following the bankruptcy — and largely to ensure that Hawaii not stay the only state without a major symphony — Paul Kosasa, president and CEO of ABC stores, a chain of convenience outlets throughout the islands, stepped in. His family foundation purchased all of the symphony’s assets at a public auction, including the music library, two pianos, assorted timpani and percussion, for about $230,000.

“We knew that if we contemplated bringing the symphony back we had to have those assets.” Kosasa, now board chair, said. “If there’s no library, no scores, it’s game over.”

In March 2012, the re-branded symphony gave its first concert before an enthusiastic crowd at the Blaisdell.

The way Parrish, the executive director, tells it, the biggest challenge Hawaii faces is its geographical isolation.

For instance, when any East Coast orchestra needs to bring in additional players for, say, the big romantic works, a pool of musicians from New York, Baltimore, even Philadelphia, readily are available to drive to the assignment.

“For us in Hawaii, the next major metropolitan stop is Las Vegas or LA,” said Parrish, a French horn player and former general manager of Chamber Music Hawaii. “The model of a regional commuting orchestra doesn’t work for us. That’s why it is so important to have a good core of musicians who are incentivized to call Hawaii home.”

A New Approach

Now, as the new fall season is about to begin, board vice chair Vicky Cayetano considers it time to expand fundraising and tap into the tourism industry for help.

“We have a limited population base and over 8 million visitors a year,” said Cayetano. “We must attract some of our visitors to these concerts. We reach tourists through businesses.”

To that end, the symphony has created what she calls an “ideal” partnership with Halekulani Corp., operators of the luxury Waikiki hotel that caters to high-end travelers, including many from Asia and elsewhere overseas.

The Halekulani provides guest artists with free rooms in exchange for high-profile recognition of the Hawaii Symphony’s Masterworks series. That gives the orchestra considerable bargaining clout when attempting to sign top-notch talent.

“It’s not only the attraction of Hawaii that helps, but also the hotel that makes people want to return and is very valuable to us,” said Parrish regarding the approximate 150 room nights allocated each season.

Peter Shaindlin, Halekulani Corp.’s chief operating officer deems the sponsorship a direct reflection of the cultural ethos pervading parent company, Mitsui Fudosan, a real estate developer headquartered in Tokyo, and an ardent supporter of the fine arts.

Said Shaindlin: “Artists who come to Honolulu are globally recognized. They’re not commercial people and we are not a hotel chain. It’s a natural alignment.”

Last year, with $360,000 grant-in-aid from the Hawaii Legislature, the Hawaii Symphony toured neighboring islands, giving concerts on Maui, Kauai and the Big Island.

Now, with monies from a five-year, $50,000 grant from Central Pacific Bank as well as $125,000 grant-in-aid from the City and County of Honolulu, symphony management plans a series of free community concerts in Kailua, in Central Oahu and on the lanai fronting the Blaisdell. Scheduling also calls for small ensembles to perform 80 to 100 concerts in school and community venues throughout Oahu, beginning mid-November.

Making Ends Meet

Teaching and passing on a legacy remains a priority for the musicians interviewed for this article. Over the years many have coached participants in Hawaii Youth Symphony programs, which works with kids between the ages of 7 and 18. With an annual budget of $750,000, the independent organization stages 24 concerts annually.

And with the holiday season on the horizon, opportunities surface for additional paying gigs.

Come December, Ballet Hawaii subcontracts the 64-orchestra core for performances of “The Nutcracker.”

And a few players accept freelance gigs with Maui Pops, a community orchestra of 45 plus 10 guest players that beginning Dec. 4 is scheduled to put on on four concerts at the Maui Arts and Cultural Center. Music Director James Durham estimates the cost of hiring Hawaii Symphony freelancers at about $1,000 per player.

Calls come in to the symphony’s Kaimuki offices requesting the services of string quartets to play at wedding receptions or to perform holiday music at special church services.

And throughout the year, players, usually those with seniority, and by invitation, freelance at Hawaii Opera Theatre productions.

Clearly, having a professional orchestra helps many organizations in the islands. And outreach to other groups is becoming more important for orchestras around the nation.

The Louisville Orchestra is a good example. Similar history: Bankruptcy. Death. Revival. Endowment: $10 million. Annual budget: $6.8 million. For a guaranteed 33 weeks of appearances, timed to conclude before May’s Kentucky Derby, the 55 players earn base pay of $981.33 weekly.

In Kentucky, giving community concerts ranks as the new norm for a mid-size orchestra.

“There is now a real change in the mentality of the industry, to look at orchestras as social service organizations, with outreach to schools, hospitals, working in homeless shelters,” according to Louisville’s executive director Andrew Kipe.

An additional plus for Louisville, according to Kipe, is the high visibility of conductor Teddy Abrams, 29, who lives in town, frequents the coffee bars and remains accessible to those desired millennials. Presumably, potential concertgoers will follow the charismatic leader into the concert arena.

Cellist Nancy Masaki, who joined the Hawaii orchestra while in high school in 1968, laments the dearth of public funding that has led to the lack of educational outreach throughout the islands.

“We used to have a tremendous educational program where we had about 250,000 students each year come in to hear the symphony,” said Masaki, who runs the Masaki School of Music, founded by her mother, piano pedagogue Ellen Masaki.

“We need to keep replenishing our audiences; we need to be more available and accessible to young students.”