The Green Bay Symphony Orchestra will shut down after 100 years of performing, with its last concert scheduled for next April.
The professional symphony was started in 1913. Its current executive director, Dan Linssen, says audiences have dwindled at a time when competition for local charitable donations and state grants has increased.
“In a community this size, there are a lot of other cultural things going on,” said Linssen. “This isn’t a reflection that the community does not, is not culturally aligned or culturally supportive. It just means that this particular mode of art is not viable.”
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Green Bay is not alone in losing its symphony: Orchestras have shut down in places from Honolulu to Syracuse over the past few years.
Correction: This story originally said that the San Francisco Opera is closing. That opera is, in fact, not closing.
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