Four Michigan orchestras get $2.34 million in 2025 budget

Four symphony orchestras in Michigan will receive a total of $2.34 million from taxpayers in the 2025 state budget.

The Lansing Symphony Orchestra, Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra, and Grand Rapids Symphony will be awarded the same amount, $533,300. The Detroit Symphony Orchestra will get $750,000.

The $2.3 million is part of $1 billion in pork spending state officials approved for the 2025 budget. Sara Anthony, D-Lansing, the Senate appropriations chair, called the pork projects a “generational investment,” according to MIRS News.

This is not the first time state and local governments have funded Michigan orchestras. The Detroit Symphony Orchestra received $500,000 from a supplemental spending bill in 2020. That money was characterized at the time as relief during COVID-19 shutdowns.

The Motor City ensemble also got an award of $10 million from the state in 2011.

The Detroit Symphony, which received more money than the other symphonies, had $54.9 million in gross receipts and $116.6 million in assets, according to 990 forms most recently available at GuideStar. It generated $44.7 million in revenue in 2021 and $39.2 million in 2022.

The Lansing Symphony Orchestra receives help from state, local, and national grants, according to its website. The orchestra had $1.3 million in gross receipts and $1.4 million in assets, according to the most recent numbers. It had $2 million in revenue in 2021 and $1.3 million in 2022.

The Grand Rapids Symphony Foundation had $9.8 million in gross receipts and $27.5 million in assets. It had $2.3 million in revenue in 2021, but it saw a steep decline in 2022, bringing in only $339,322.

The Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra had $2.1 million in gross receipts and $3.8 million in assets. It earned $2.56 million in revenue in 2021 and $2.03 million in 2022.

Michigan Capitol Confidential emailed the four symphonies. Only the Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra responded.

“This new and critical funding from the state budget will form a significant piece of our plan as we navigate challenging financial hurdles, made more acute by the recent pandemic,” Kemper Edwards, director of marketing and communications, told CapCon.

As budgets for the arts come under fire nationwide, Kemper said, Michigan's investment will be a major rallying point.

“We are now poised to expand and strengthen investment in our activity,” Kemper said, “most ambitiously in our robust Learning & Community programs that serve and enrich the lives of over 30,000 preschoolers, K-12 and university students, seniors, and other music lovers throughout the Southeast Michigan region.”