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Non-Profit Classical Music Organization On South Coast Suspends Season, Reviewing Financial Options

A financially troubled South Coast based classical music organization has decided to temporarily suspend plans for a new season, as leaders try to sort out its future.

The Santa Barbara Chamber Orchestra is exploring options ranging from going ahead with the 2017-18 season as planned, paring down the number of performances, or shuttering the organization permanently.

The goal is to make a decision on a direction in the next 90 days. Orchestra officials say like many performing arts groups, ticket sales only make up a part of their operating budget, and they are dependent on grants and donations to make ends meet.

The Chamber Orchestra is nearly four decades old. It’s featured some of the nation’s leading musicians, including performers with the Los Angeles and New York Philharmonics.

Lance Orozco has been News Director of KCLU since 2001, providing award-winning coverage of some of the biggest news events in the region, including the Thomas and Woolsey brush fires, the deadly Montecito debris flow, the Borderline Bar and Grill attack, and Ronald Reagan's funeral.