In parting shot, orchestra official details money woes

By Kristen Peterson (contact)

Thursday, Dec. 25, 2008 | 2 a.m.

Peter Aaronson, former executive director of the Las Vegas Philharmonic, was let go from the $125,000-a-year position in a cost-cutting move to help save the financially strapped orchestra.

The duties of the executive director have been assigned to other staff members, and the orchestra is not seeking a replacement for Aaronson, according to an executive of the symphony.

When he took over the 10-year-old orchestra on Sept. 2, Aaronson said, he had no idea what he was walking into. Within six weeks, he discovered what he described as “a very serious cash flow problem.”

The Philharmonic would have been out of money by the end of the year, Aaronson said Wednesday.

“It was not just that my salary was overpriced, we had no cash flow to keep the doors open,” he said. “Had there been some financial discipline years before, the orchestra would have never been in this position. The orchestra needed to make adjustments long before I was hired.”

Aaronson’s departure last Friday came after the orchestra’s board president, Barbara Woollen, resigned after conflicts with musicians, staff and board members.

Jeri Crawford, board vice president and presiding officer until a new board president is elected, did not return calls for comment Wednesday.

Problems with the Philharmonic’s finances became public this month. The orchestra has a $1.7 million annual budget and two months ago was looking at a deficit of almost $200,000. It lost corporate sponsorships for its Fourth of July concert and individual donors have cut their contributions because of the economy.

The orchestra was faced with possibly canceling its January youth concerts, although corporate and individual donors and the Philharmonic Guild came up with $90,000 to save the program.

To help with the deficit, music director David Itkin cut his $93,500-a-year salary by 10 percent. About a third of his salary goes to cover travel expenses to Las Vegas from his home in Texas, Itkin told the Sun.

Aaronson was recruited as executive director by Woollen. Some staff members and musicians had criticized his $125,000 salary, which was approved by the board.

Aaronson said he resents that criticism.

“There was never any embrace of my arrival,” he said. “It was very obvious that the orchestra was not interested in working with me in a constructive way. I was working for the good of the orchestra. At every turn I received resistance over every program and every collaboration.”

Woollen said Wednesday that Aaronson was hired because he was the strongest candidate for the position.

“The entire executive committee interviewed him,” Woollen said. “They were very impressed. He had orchestra experience and business experience, which is a rare combination.”

Aaronson served as conductor for the Henderson Symphony Orchestra, a position he left in 2006 after four seasons.

He earned a bachelor’s in music from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, with additional studies at the Juilliard School of Music, and orchestra conducting at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria.

He also has a business background. He handled operations of the C2K Showroom at the Venetian and was director of entertainment for Bally’s Las Vegas and Universal Studios Hollywood, entertainment manager for the Trump Taj Mahal Casino Resort in Atlantic City and, most recently, entertainment director of Norwegian Cruise Lines.