In fact, the Inquirer reports, the orchestra ran a very small deficit of less than $100,000. The deficit, which is less than one percent of the $37.6 million budget, is, according to Elizabeth Warshawer, the orchestra's interim executive director, "well within the conditions of the [Joseph] Neubauer and [Leonore] Annenberg grants." The donors of those grants, which total $60 million, stipulated that the orchestra must balance its budget.

Concerts in the 2004-05 season were at nearly 90 percent of capacity, and the orchestra's endowment campaign recently passed its $100 million mark, with $22 million raised last year.