ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, February 27, 1996 TAG: 9602270078
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MATT CHITTUM STAFF WRITER
The board of directors of the Roanoke Valley Chamber Music Society will be significantly outnumbered when it meets the Brno Chamber Orchestra Thursday night.
With musicians from the Czech and Slovak Republics as well as the United States, the orchestra has the board outnumbered 14 to 1. Ann-Marie Horner is that one, and she has just about had enough.
The society's bylaws call for a nine-member board, plus a secretary and a treasurer. As executive director of the society and the last remaining member of the board, Horner runs the whole show herself - from booking the acts and getting them paid to raising the money to pay them as well as her own salary.
She says she won't continue the society if she has to do it alone.
But Horner hopes, or at least half hopes, that by the end of the concert at Roanoke College's Olin Hall Thursday night, the board will have a full complement.
All the programs for the chamber orchestra's concert at Olin Hall will include a form that essentially asks audience members two things: Do you want to see the Roanoke Valley Chamber Music Society continue? If so, are you willing to help, up to and including being on the board of directors?
Being on the board means buying a $50 season ticket, making a donation, and pitching in with fund-raising and organization.
If 10 people don't volunteer to serve on the board, the concert may prove to be a death knell for the 15-year-old society. If no board can be put together, Horner said, this will be the society's last season.
``I'm really torn,'' she said.
She loves chamber music. For years it's been her energy that has kept the society's concert series going. But now she's beginning to feel it's not worth it to go on. She seems worn out by the whole affair.
Not to mention that she has a daughter about to go to college. Teaching piano and running the society aren't cutting it financially.
In early February, she sent a letter to 110 people on her mailing list asking them to attend a meeting at the Roanoke County library to ``re-group.'' About 10 people showed up, and that was more than Horner had expected.
``My concern is that as an organization, [the society] just does not exist,'' she told the ad hoc committee. She said she is in the position of raising money to pay her own $5,000 salary, and that is ``just wrong.''
``I look at this list [of the concerts we've had] and I think it would be a crying shame to lose this,'' said Bill Puryear, a businessman and season ticket holder. The society has brought in chamber music from all over the world, including the Vienna String Sextet, the Ludwig Trio, the Smithsonian Chamber Players and the Ensemble Instrumentale de France.
The group voted with only one dissenter to continue the society, but when Horner asked if any of them would be willing to serve on the board, only one, free-lance writer Priscilla Richardson, volunteered.
This is not the first time the society has been on the verge of collapse. Last year it was financial problems, which were survived thanks to a few generous benefactors.
``People come up to me in the lobby of the concerts and hand me $100 bills," Horner said. ``That's why I always wear something with pockets.''
But the society has never had large coffers. These days it raises little more than the $20,000 or so it takes to put on the annual five-concert series. That includes about $2,000 per group, Horner's $5,000 salary and various other expenses.
Horner's biggest concern, though, is public interest in the concert series. For the first 10 years, support was strong, with an average of about 200 season tickets sold, and over 200 people attending nearly every concert.
``Frankly, I don't know how we did it,'' Horner admitted.
But the last few years have been rough.
Reviews in The Roanoke Times frequently bear headlines like ``The few that came to hear won't soon forget the Chester Quartet'' and ``Sparse crowd hears fine program by trio.''
It's been four years since the society had an audience over 200. This year a mere 130 season tickets were sold, and only 98 people actually attended the last concert.
At least part of the problem is that Roanoke's cultural dollar is stretched ever thinner.
When the society was formed in the living room of financial consultant and music lover Bert Ely in the late-1970s, there was no Center in the Square. Victoria Bond probably had never heard of Roanoke. It would be another 3 years before she began putting the Roanoke Symphony Orchestra on the map. Roanoke College's Kandinsky Trio had yet to form.
There are just a lot of other cultural events for Roanokers to spend their money on, Horner conceded.
Asked after the meeting whether she thought enough volunteers would come forward at Thursday's concert, Horner shook her head wearily.
``I seriously doubt it.''
She looked tuckered out.
``I knew this meeting would exhaust me, so I'm going to a movie tonight to relax,'' she said. ``I'm going to see `Dead Man Walking.' Does that sound appropriate?''
The Brno Chamber Orchestra Thursday, 8 p.m. at Olin Hall, Roanoke College. Presented by the Roanoke Valley Chamber Music Society. Tickets available at the door, $16 for adults and $8 for students. Call 774-2899 for more information.
LENGTH: Medium: 99 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: Ann-Marie Horner is the board of directors for theby CNBRoanoke Valley Chamber Music Society - for now, at least. color.