Letters to the Editor

Roney didn’t drive fundraising

Louis Roney’s April 7 “Play On” column contains substantial distortions.

Louis and Joy Roney did found the Orlando Community Concert Association in 1984 (“Community” was later changed to “Celebrity” and the entire name was eventually shortened to OCCA Inc.). Louis Roney was indeed the prime mover during OCCA’s first decade, which required no “nonstop fundraising” (a phrase from the April 7 column) once the Edyth Bush Charitable Foundation decided to underwrite the performances.

The Festival of Orchestras, launched in November 1995, was the brainchild of John Tiedtke (1907-2004), Central Florida’s greatest arts philanthropist (Tiedtke also co-founded the Orlando Opera and the old Florida Orchestra, and for 50 years, oversaw the Bach Festival at Rollins College).

Tiedtke picked OCCA to present his new all-orchestra series and actively lobbied United Arts to direct half of a special symphonic music fund to OCCA (against heavy pressure to allocate the entire fund to the fledgling Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra, then called Music Orlando).

John Tiedtke recruited me to market the new series, weeks before he ever introduced me to Louis Roney.

Any suggestion that launching the Festival of Orchestras series was merely business as usual for OCCA is like replacing a Volkswagen with a Ferrari, then downplaying the change by observing that each is a car. The Festival had a much larger annual budget and an order of magnitude greater operational complexity.

Roney did name the series (copying the International Festival of Orchestras at Carnegie Hall). And Louis and Joy Roney (especially Joy — a former world-class French horn player) deserve credit for programming skill.

While little flexibility existed in choosing three to four of the five orchestras booked for any given season, the Roneys regularly fought — and I do mean fought — for programs that would resonate with Central Florida audiences.

It is fair to speculate that average orchestra quality and program marketability suffered from their absence (and from the exit of Executive Director Joe Rizzo) starting around 2004.

On the other hand, significant non-institutional donations only started to flow after a new executive director (Rizzo) and the first truly independent board took control in 2000. Prior to this, probably 95 percent of the Festival’s unearned income came from the Bush Foundation, the state of Florida and United Arts. Even so, United Arts invariably required behind-the-scenes arm-twisting by John Tiedtke.

When crises arose, no “nonstop fundraising” occurred. Rather, John Tiedtke opened his checkbook. Twice between 1995 and 2000, John Tiedtke bailed out the Festival with $50,000 cash infusions; the first a loan (repaid) and the second a gift (made anonymously). The implication of the April 7 “Play On”

column that Roney drove Festival fundraising during his titular Festival leadership distorts reality. That role belonged to John Tiedtke.

Finally, while orchestra, program and venue choices during the past five or six years probably contributed to a decline in ticket sales, the Festival of Orchestras did not die from poor management. The worst economic climate for arts funding since the 1930s killed it.

—Jeffrey Prutsman

Lake Mary

Columnist’s suggestion is arrogant

Louis Roney erroneously re-wrote the history of the Festival of Orchestras in his April 7 column (“Back where we started”). I won’t take the time to correct all of his egregious factual errors, but I do want to emphasize my special exception to his arrogant suggestion that only he alone could lead the organization successfully and his successors lacked “the unique, imaginative money-raising ability upon which music presenting organizations must rely.”

In fact, the Festival of Orchestras continued to thrive for many years after I succeeded Roney as CEO in 2000. Thanks to the capable leadership of high-tech entrepreneur Whit Cotten, Rollins music professor Susan Lackman, local attorneys Fred Schott and Pamela Cox, and other board presidents — plus a competent and experienced board of directors — the Festival enjoyed large sponsorships, effective fundraising and great world orchestras that attracted mostly full houses with numerous sellouts.

Roney knows full well that the brains and the funding behind the Festival was local businessman and philanthropist John Tiedtke, not Louis Roney. Mr. Tiedtke was greatly loved in our arts community, and alas, is not here to defend himself, as he died in 2007.

Unfortunately, like the Orlando Opera, Daytona’s Florida International Festival and other regional arts organizations, the Festival suffered in the past two years from waning finances related to the struggling economy; losing the Carr Performing Arts Center as its main venue; the inability to present preferred matinee performances at its last venue; and other related economic problems. But our board did close down the Festival properly as responsible stewards, and we are proud of the 27 years during which the Festival presented hundreds of the world’s great orchestras for enjoyment in our Orlando backyard.

—Joe Rizzo, Winter Park,

board member and former CEO of the Festival of Orchestras

City goes against its resolution

The Winter Park City Commission was hot to trot on passing the Complete Streets resolution (the Complete Streets policy ensures that roads are designed with all users in mind — including bicyclists, public transportation vehicles and riders, and pedestrians) on April 11 — I imagine in support. But it voted unanimously, I believe, to eliminate medians on Fairbanks, in direct contradiction of Complete Streets tenets.

Two things surprised me — first, that the Commission considered the Fairbanks matter one week ahead of the scheduled presentation on Complete Streets. And second, that they voted on the Fairbanks matter when no vote was anticipated by the public ahead of the meeting.

So I ask, is the Complete Streets resolution just one more of these impotent actions of the Commission, such as high-speed rail and SunRail? I can’t imagine any road on which these precepts would be implemented.

Forget about Denning — that’ll never go. We just finished pouring $$$$ into Orange. Lakemont is a prime candidate with probably the least opposition. But … let’s see where your rubber meets the road.

—William Shallcross

Winter Park

Another place for baby delivery

Regarding the story “Baby deliveries move south to Winter Park” (published in the Observer on March 24 and in the Seminole Voice on April 8) I would like to remind prospective parents in Seminole County there is another option close to home.

Central Florida Regional Hospital in Sanford has been delivering babies since 1982, and we are located just minutes from most communities in Seminole County. Our team of local, community-based board certified obstetrician/gynecologists and nurses specializing in maternal and fetal health have welcomed more than 22,000 babies and are available to help families plan the birth experience that is perfect for them.

The Baby Suites at Central Florida Regional Hospital is currently under renovation, scheduled for completion in July. We invite expectant parents in Seminole and West Volusia Counties to call us at 1-800-445-3392 for more information or to schedule a tour of our birthing suites.

—Wendy H. Brandon,

chief executive officer, Central Florida Regional Hospital