Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble clipped this summer

The Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble is the latest local music group to be hit hard enough by the economy to make artistic cuts. (That is really a good criteria for talking about this as the weeks and months (don't say years) of the Great Recession crawl on. Every group is feeling the crunch, but I don't want to report every last cut. That is, unless it is the Pittsburgh Symphony, which announced major staff cuts yesterday and simply is so big (staff and budget and reputation-wise).

But, the troubles of PNME, Pittsburgh's main portal for new music for decades, have caused the group to cut two weeks from its upcoming summer season (its only season, actually, as it moved to summer a few years ago). That means a loss of two concerts and means the group will cut its week of preparation. The latter is particularly troubling, for it was in that time that it has rehearsed the difficult staging issues that stemmed from its wonderful, genre-pushing new works such as "Drunken Moon" or "Just Out of Reach."

The immediate reason is that The Heinz Endowments cut its annual funding of PNME by $10,000, says Kevin Noe, the group's leader. "$10,000, for PNME, is a lot of money."

"This year their cut is related to the extraordinary stresses on our budget," says Janet Sarbaugh, who directs the Arts and Culture Program of Heinz Endowments. "But in fact our support of PNME has historically been very strong, and disproportionately high relative to other arts organizations of its size."

Noe realizes this. "[It's] a foundation who is one of our most loyal supporters." But he says the Heinz cut is only the latest in a series of reduction in funding by it and other foundations such as The Pennsylvania Council and The Copland Foundation. over the past few years. That even as the group's attendance from 2000 to 2008 grew by 700%.

The predicament PNME is in now is that the group is grateful for the funding it still gets (after all, no one has to give them money) and doesn't want to make a scene, but the cuts really do hinder operations. "While it might not be missed in organizations with budgets that are far larger, it will definitely make an actual impact on what we put on the stage," says Noe. "We've also had to cut having printed programs entirely, and have had pay cuts for the team and management."

Of course, money problems cannot all be laid at the feet of foundations. Fundraising and marketing are a group's responsibility and the fact that PNME is in town for only the summer hurts those. It's a point that Sarbaugh makes: "I think PNME would be strengthened by building a broader base of support, particularly from the many individuals in the community who care about it and recognize its quality."

This is true, but PNME is a group with a tight budget and little fat that has actually grown significantly artistically in recent years. At a time when money is tight, I would think its high bang-for-the-buck quality would entice various foundations and donors. Here's hoping so and that PNME also redoubles its own fundraising efforts because we can hardly afford to lose the under-served contemporary repertoire that it brings to a largely conservative Pittsburgh music scene.

The summer season will now be Friday and Saturday, July 10 through August 1, with eight concerts in total.