By Cliff Peale
and Janelle Gelfand
The Cincinnati Enquirer

The Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra will start with a clean financial slate for its 2004-05 fiscal year.

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A donor who wishes to remain anonymous will contribute about $1.8 million to the CSO, wiping out accumulated budget deficits for the past two years, the group said Thursday.

But the symphony still will have to cut more expenses and add more revenue to balance the budget for the fiscal year that starts Sept. 1, adding to the measures it already has announced, said Dan Hoffheimer, chairman of the CSO's board of trustees.

"The CSO is hard about the work of making sure that its financial house is and will remain in good order," Hoffheimer said at a morning announcement at Music Hall.

With an annual budget of $31.9 million and a $66 million endowment, the CSO has long been Greater Cincinnati's richest arts institution. But its deficit is expected to balloon to $1.45 million for the fiscal year that ends Aug. 31, the largest deficit in more than a decade.

Soon after it received that estimate early this year, the CSO started talking to some of its largest donors about new gifts that would help close the gap. It also started looking into ways to cut costs and generate new revenue.

It already has announced several measures, including raising ticket prices about 25 percent and canceling its popular Bach & Beyond summertime music series. Those measures will remain in place, and other cuts are coming. The CSO still has to negotiate an agreement with its 99 musicians, replacing the deal that expires Aug. 31.

CSO music director Paavo Jarvi said any budget trimming would not include cutting musicians from the orchestra.

"This is absolutely not an option as far as I'm concerned," he said.

The exact amount of the new donation won't be known until August, when the CSO determines the deficit for this year.

Hoffheimer attributed most of the deficit to a drop in the stock market, which cut the CSO's endowment to about $66 million from a high of about $94 million two years ago.

The group had increased its annual "draw" from the endowment to 8.7 percent of the endowment's value this year. It hopes to return to its traditional draw of 6 percent.

The musicians were told of the anonymous gift during a rehearsal Thursday morning.

"It seems to be very good news," French hornist Duane Dugger said. "The orchestra is very, very appreciative."

E-mail cpeale@enquirer.com or jgelfand@enquirer.com