Alicia Abelson
WMAL.com
NORTH BETHESDA, Md. — (WMAL) The National Philharmonic is seeing success in their efforts to make the most out of $400,000 granted to them by the Montgomery County Council.
The grant was approved by the council after the organization was facing a $200,000 shortfall for the fiscal year of 2016.
Leanna Ferfolia, president of the National Philharmonic, provided updates on the organizations efforts to gain community involvement at a briefing with the council on Monday.
The National Philharmonic has hired a consultant, a new account to reconstruct their finances, and has brought in new board members who have previous experience working with non-profit organizations.
According to Leanna Ferfolia, the organization has also been working on “how we respond to the community around us in the county, what we are doing to diversify our audiences and how we bring in that diversity into our organization, and of course how to expand our accessibility to Montgomery County.”
Overall, the board was pleased with the National Philharmonic’s efforts, but some council members like Craig Rice are still concerned about the Philharmonic’s “future self sufficiency in terms of establishing yourself truly as our community orchestra and how best to do that and get engaged with some of our other communities.”
The Philharmonic was created in 2003, and has been housed at The Music Center at Strathmore in North Bethesda since 2005.
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