SYRACUSE -- M&T Bank obtained Syracuse Symphony Orchestra assets and equipment through bankruptcy court. M&T Bank has arranged for the assets to be donated to local non-profit organizations for community use.
“As a major financial supporter of cultural institutions in Syracuse and across upstate New York, we understand the value of the SSO’s assets and the significance of the organization’s local history. Our intent has always been to preserve these assets for the local community and we have partnered with strong organizations capable of putting the instruments, music, and other assets to good use,” said M&T Bank Regional President Allen J. Naples.
The Cultural Resources Council of Onondaga County, a leader in the local arts community, will receive a donation of music instruments including percussion, woodwind, and brass.
“We applaud M&T Bank for their very generous decision to keep these important musical assets from the Syracuse Symphony Orchestra in our community. The Cultural Resources Council staff and board are pleased and proud to be selected as the stewards for these instruments and will ensure that they continue to benefit artists and audiences of Central New York,” said Stephan Butler, Executive Director of the Cultural Resources Council.
M&T also plans to donate sheet music from the Syracuse Symphony Orchestra to The Rose, Jules R. and Stanford Setnor School of Music at Syracuse University. Additional instruments historically used by student musicians in the community will be donated to the Setnor School.
“Syracuse University is grateful to M&T Bank for its generosity to the community and accepts the charge to steward these valuable assets for the entire region,” says Patrick M. Jones, Director of the Setnor School of Music in Syracuse University’s College of Visual and Performing Arts. “The equipment for the youth orchestras will give Central New York’s fine young musicians the best instruments on which to perform for decades. The orchestra library will be carefully and professionally maintained and managed through a cooperative effort between the College of Visual and Performing Arts and the School of Information Studies, which has a nationally recognized program in librarianship.”
M&T Bank, a long-time supporter of the Onondaga Historical Association, is donating all of the Syracuse Symphony Orchestra’s archives including albums and several paintings.
