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Honolulu Symphony Orchestra is a Sad Poster Child for Bankruptcy Under Chapter 11...No, Chapter 7!

By Joseph McDaniel, Esq.

The Honolulu Symphony Orchestra is the oldest symphony orchestra west of the Rocky Mountains.

And that's sort of a big deal.

The cultural heritage that we own, as part of our inheritance from Western Europe, is a wonderful thing. Whether it's a reminder that the Irish saved civilization, or the way that Italy produced the most beautiful paintings that the world has ever seen. In two successive waves! Or even the democratic principles that Athens and its Golden Age gave the world. 

Our cultural heritage is a wonderful thing.

But not always a profitable thing.

I understand that a depression hits everybody pretty hard.

Everybody who runs any sort of business gets hurt. I know that because of the doctors and lawyers and CPAs and restaurants that drop in for a chat because they're contemplating a bankruptcy (and yes, I am a bankruptcy lawyer in Phoenix, Arizona, for these long thirty years).

In general, businesses get hurt the worst during a depression if they have goods or services such that their purchase can be delayed, or deferred, or eliminated from a budget.

So if you have a shop that repairs motors when they stop turning over, you might be hurt less by the depression than somebody who paints pretty pictures on vehicles, because making a vehicle run in Arizona is just plain necessary, and immediate; making a vehicle pretty, not so much.

And even serious classical music lovers can put off going to the symphony when they are concentrating on watching their business do a "Titanic" imitation.

So I was saddened, but not surprised, to read that the Honolulu Symphony Orchestra had converted its Chapter 11 Bankruptcy to a Chapter 7 Bankruptcy. 

And I hope that the civic groups trying to breathe life into that Orchestra have the luck of the Irish!

Full post as published by Arizona Bankruptcy Attorney Blog on March 15, 2011 (boomark / email).