There is trouble at the symphony – big, nasty trouble. The Memphis Symphony Orchestra is on the verge of bankruptcy; Memphis might be left without an orchestra.

After the Financial Crisis of 2008, the Memphis Symphony Orchestra began borrowing money from its endowment to cover end-of-year expenses. The operating budget deficit has grown to $8.34 million since 2005.

Now, the endowment has run dry, coinciding with additional financial grants that have expired. The Symphony was dependent upon these grants, and there is now a huge gap in the budget.

After Ryan Fleur, the most recent long-time CEO of the Memphis Symphony Orchestra, left the position in 2012, two interim CEOs filled his spot. In the same way a substitute teacher would stick to the original teacher’s rules, Fleur’s sucecessors stuck with the past financial plans. Deficits were left to grow, and those outside the Memphis Symphony Orchestra Board were left in the dark.

“The structure of the symphony as we know it today must be changed because the model is no longer viable. We’re looking for the Hail Mary [of] $20 to $25 million,” said Gayle Rose, chairman of the Memphis Symphony Orchestra Board. The office staff has been reduced from eighteen to twelve, and many are worried about the future of the Symphony.

In order to finish this season, the Symphony requires donations. The current CEO, Roland Valliere, expressed the urgent need for donations in an announcement to concert-goers. The board is working towards restructuring the Symphony so it can run on a reduced budget next season — if there will be a next season.

“If the Memphis Symphony disappears, I would be devastated,” said junior Hannah Whitehouse.

“A lot of Memphis Youth Symphony members’ private teachers are in the Memphis Symphony. I also regularly attend the Symphony concerts because they inspire me to pursue music in the future,” she said.

Simply put, Memphis will no longer has an orchestra unless we do something about it,

The Memphis Symphony Orchestra caters to a wide range of audiences. It’s not just for classical elitists and the elderly who attend their concerts. The widely popular Opus One concerts feature orchestral renditions of popular music and classics such as The Beatles and Elvis Presley. Many members of the orchestra regularly visit schools around Memphis to help their music programs. It is not too late to start attending these concerts.

What Memphians should seriously worry about is whether or not it will be the last concert from the Memphis Symphony Orchestra.