Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra Announces Salary Cuts and Financial Changes

The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra has announced a series of financial cutbacks due to the health crisis, Trib Live reports.

The orchestra's 87 musicians will take a 25% reduction in base salary. In addition, 75% of the staff has been affected by a reduction of hours, furloughs, layoffs, and position elimination. All part-time workers have been furloughed.

Music director Manfred Honeck and PSO president and CEO Melia Tourangeau will both take a compensation reduction of 30%.

"It's been pretty bad," said Tourangeau. "I'm not going to lie. And things were compounded by the fact that we had a tough financial time five years ago and we were working our way out of that to celebrate our 125th anniversary."

One of the biggest cancellations the orchestra faced was the European Festivals tour, which was set to begin in August, and would consist of 12 concerts in 11 cities across 5 countries.

The cancellation of the international tour "has been pretty devastating," Tourangeau said. "Like any crisis you have to live through it and fight one day at a time."

Read more on Trib Live.