Gulick, 53, told The Honolulu Advertiser, "The first order of business is dealing with the current cash and budget situation, both to finish out this year and to prepare to have the money in place to get through next year. We've identified a need beyond what we're seeing currently in ticket revenues and normal donations and contributions. It's a critical need."
Gulick replaces Gideon Toeplitz, former managing director of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, who was named interim president in Honolulu after a rocky period that saw five senior members of management resign in May 2005 — on top of the Hawaii orchestra's persistent money cash problems. Toeplitz left in March.
The Honolulu Symphony musicians, who had agreed to a 20 percent across-the-board pay cut in 2004, lobbied to have an outside consultant review the orchestra's management practices. The audit, released in early 2005, was critical of the orchestra's administration, although Bloom said at the time his resignation was not related to the audit.
But the situation has improved for the 106-year-old orchestra recently. As of December 2005, fundraising was up nearly 50 percent from the previous year, Gideon Toeplitz said in a previous article in the Advertiser. In May of this year the Hawaii state government appropriated $4 million to the Symphony's endowment and $150,000 to its education programs.
