For Spring for Music, an End in Sight

September 20, 2012, 4:43 pm

By DANIEL J. WAKIN

Spring for Music, a noble endeavor to bring six North American orchestras chosen for their creative programs to Carnegie Hall during a weeklong festival, will end after two more outings. The organizers said on Thursday that the fourth festival, in May 2014, would be the last. A spokeswoman, Mary Lou Falcone, said the organizers could not raise the money for another season or sell another presenter on the idea. “Without a partner or someone taking it over, it was not sustainable,” Ms. Falcone said. She said the organizers had approached the Kennedy Center, Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center and the New York Philharmonic. “It didn't fit with their profiles or their schedules,” she said.

Ms. Falcone described the effort as an experiment with the expectation of a limited run. “We're really happy that it's four years,” she said. “Our hope is that somebody will see the value in what has been done and pick it up as an idea either in whole or in part.”

In a news release, Spring for Music, which charges $25 a ticket, says it will have presented 23 orchestras by the end. Next May, the orchestras of Baltimore, Albany, Buffalo, Oregon and Detroit, and the National Symphony, will appear, followed by those of New York, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, Seattle, Rochester and Winnipeg in 2014.