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For the second year in a row, the Cleveland Orchestra managed to produce a balanced budget despite the millions of dollars lost due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This year鈥檚 numbers were announced at the orchestra鈥檚 annual meeting Wednesday. 

Speaking to ideastream before the meeting, CEO Andre Gremillet said the orchestra鈥檚 budget balanced around $48 million this year compared with $53 million in 2019, yielding about an $18,000 margin, through a combination of cost-cutting and donations. In addition to salary cuts across the organization, the canceled performance season took away the costs of producing an opera as well as travel.

鈥�On the revenue side, it's been what we call extraordinary fundraising and special fundraising,鈥� Gremillet said. 鈥淥ur donors basically were very generous and came to help.鈥�

In addition to the unintended cost-savings, Gremillet said the pandemic has added a new level of flexibility and innovation to the century-old institution, such as the orchestra鈥檚 new streaming app, 鈥淎della.鈥�

Cleveland Orchestra CEO Andre Gremillet [Jean-Marie Papoi]

"But I don't want to appear too optimistic here, because I'm obviously seriously concerned about the coming months and about the uncertain length of this crisis,鈥� Gremillet said, acknowledging that the numbers in this year鈥檚 annual report only reflect the first three and a half months of a pandemic that has no end in sight. 鈥淨uite frankly, like the pandemic, I think the worst is yet to come in terms of the financial impact for us.鈥�

For now, the CEO said he鈥檒l take the victory of balancing the budget at the end of a tough year.

鈥淭here's a long road ahead of us,鈥� he said.