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n e w h a v e n b i z . c o m | A u g u s t 2 0 2 2 | n e w h a v e n B I Z 25 A r t s & B u s i n e s s Call us 800-475-2265 or visit washtrust.com Any bank can give you a decision. WE REPLACE red tape with local decision makers who can give you an answer quickly. James M. Hagerty Executive Vice President, Chief Lending Officer Julia Anne Slom Senior Vice President, Team Leader, Commercial Real Estate Anthony Botelho Senior Vice President, Team Leader Kevin Hanrahan Vice President, Commercial Real Estate Brett W. Eagleson Vice President, Commercial Real Estate Thomas D. Pizzo Vice President and Market Leader, Commercial Banking Edward O. Handy III Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Member FDIC and opens the door to more engaging with the community," he says. New music director to be named Another major change ahead for the NHSO will be a new music director. Neale's three-year contract, which began in the pandemic shortened 2019-20 season and was renewed for two years, will end with the 2023-24 season. Three finalists to take over the job are expected to be announced in August. They will conduct and interact with the orchestra during the 2022- 23 season and a new director will be named next summer. Carroll says she expects the new director will continue the NHSO's long-term goal of becoming more relevant to New Haven. Carroll says even before the English gift, the NHSO was in a solid fiscal position, with surpluses for seven of the past eight fiscal years. It recorded a $697,335 surplus in the fiscal year ending June 2021, up from a $168,443 surplus in the year-ago period. Surpluses are directed to the orchestra's stability fund, which acts as a reserve and can currently sustain the organization in an emergency for at least three months. Carroll credits the government's financial support during the pandemic for the latest surplus. Still, she notes, audiences have not returned to pre-pandemic levels, "We have a fairly risk-averse audience," she says. Though attendance numbers started to grow at the start of the 2021-22 season, a new wave of the COVID-19 virus at the end of last year brought the numbers down again. "Our box office was 40 percent of what we usually had," she says. The good news, however, is "that almost half of our audience last year was brand new to us." Carroll says she hopes more new fans will be found within the community and beyond thanks to its outreach programs, the new residency and the excitement of new artistic leadership. "The gift makes us more stable and stronger in perpetuity but it's part of a long-term goal of becoming more and more relevant to the community of New Haven," she says. n PHOTO | CONTRIBUTED NHSO Music Director Alasdair Neale.

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