Patron leaves orchestra $8 million
Nearly a year after her death, Anne Melvin has given the Columbus Symphony Orchestra a gift that will help ensure the group’s long-term stability.
Melvin, who died in December 2016, left $8 million from her estate for the symphony — the largest single gift in its history. Officials announced the endowment on Thursday.
“The Columbus Symphony was one of the great loves of my mother’s life; music was part and parcel of who she was,” Melvin’s daughter, Anne T. Melvin, said in a statement.
The late Melvin had donated millions of dollars to the symphony during the course of her life. In August, as her mother’s estate was being settled, Anne T. Melvin called symphony officials and told them they were going to receive money from her mother.
“We knew she had made provisions in her will for the symphony, but we didn’t know the number,” said Denise Rehg, the symphony’s executive director.
Though it is the symphony’s largest-ever gift, Rehg said the greater significance is that it allows the symphony to jump-start a fledgling endowment that it initiated last year.
Melvin’s donation will be added to $4.8 million either already raised or pledged to bring the total to $12.8 million. The goal, according to Ross Bridgman, Development Committee chairman for the symphony, is to increase that to $25
million in the next several years and eventually $50 million.
At the expected interest rate of 4.5 percent, $50 million would generate $2.25 million annually. The symphony runs on an annual budget of about $8 million.
“The idea of losing Anne’s annual gift was daunting; it was a scary proposition for us,” Rehg said.
“What this gift does is makes it so the symphony doesn’t have to replace our ‘angel.’ We believe a $50 million endowment will provide a secure, strong base for the symphony.”
Symphony Music Director Rossen Milanov was clearly touched Thursday as he discussed what the gift would mean to him and the musicians.
“This gift is going to give
us goosebumps every time we leave the concert hall,” he said. “This gift is going to make us feel uplifted. ... We hope we can make Columbus proud of our orchestra.”
Having a healthy endowment is important for an orchestra that, like many arts groups nationwide, faced financial problems during the recession a decade ago. The Columbus Symphony shut down for five months in 2008, and upon its return, trimmed its budget from about $12 million to the current $8 million.
Rehg said the symphony had a small endowment at that time, but spent it during the financial hardship. She said this latest endowment is structured in a way that prevents the symphony from using up the principal.
Even if the group builds a $50 endowment, though, that would be much less than several other Ohio symphonies. The Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra reported $114 million in its endowment in 2015; and in 2016, the Cleveland Orchestra reported its endowment was $173.8 million.
One reason for that discrepancy has to do with the groups’ budgets. Both Cleveland and Cincinnati are considered “Group 1” orchestras by the League of American Orchestras with budgets of more than $17.2 million. Columbus is a Group 2 orchestra, where budgets are between $7.75 million and $17.2 million.