FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Thursday, September 19, 2013
Contact: Suzanne Calvin 214.443.1014 Or Megan Meister 214.443.1071
suzanne.calvin@dallasopera.org megan.meister@dallasopera.org
THE DALLAS OPERA IS PROUD TO ANNOUNCE
THE COMPANY HAS ACHIEVED A BALANCED OPERATING RESULT,
TWO YEARS AHEAD OF SCHEDULE!
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TDO Achieves First Balanced Operating Budget Since 2005
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Company to Present Four Operas
During 2014-15 Season, in Addition to Everest,
A Dallas Opera World Premiere
DALLAS, TX, SEPTEMBER 19, 2013 – The Dallas Opera is extremely proud to announce today that the company has achieved its first balanced operating budget since Fiscal 2005, a full two years ahead of schedule. The company’s latest fiscal year ended on June 30th.
Exactly two years ago, the Dallas Opera faced its most severe financial crisis in modern company history, prompting the TDO Board and General Director and CEO Keith Cerny, who assumed the role in May of 2010, to initiate an aggressive restructuring of company operations. This included the difficult step of cancelling one of the mainstage operas of the 2011-2012 Season, and reducing the 2012-2013 Season to three mainstage operas. These steps were taken as part of a multi-year plan to restore the company’s financial health while maintaining artistic quality, and to achieve a balanced operating budget no later than the end of the 2014-2015 Season.
The subsequent outpouring of board, trustee and public support allowed the company to build a base of multi-year donor commitments, to secure major new gifts, earn an anonymous $10 million dollar match (through an equal amount in donations to the Cultural Renaissance Endowment Fund), dramatically reduce costs without sacrificing overall artistic quality, and steadily reduce the company’s deficits. Read more →