Phoenix, Arizona · Beyond the stage
The music
that disappears.
An orchestra lives in more than a concert hall.
Help keep its music in our community.
The situation · reviewed October 29, 2026
The Phoenix Symphony announced it will suspend performances and programs after November 1, with unpaid musician layoffs beginning November 2.
Read the October 20 announcement ↗Give on the Symphony’s official website. Read what is known about funding & recovery ↓
Follow the music
One orchestra.
So many places to belong.
Follow a lesson, a community visit, a young musician’s first opportunity. These are connections worth keeping.
Tap a note to read its story and source. This map shows publicly documented relationships across seasons, not a current schedule. The suspension’s effect on each individual partnership has not been confirmed here.
A visual metaphor. Brightness does not measure today’s funding, a gift’s effect, or the cost of restarting.
The same illustration, controlled from either end. This is not a financial forecast.
Earlier work & research
The ASU Preparatory Academy pilot is a historical example. The Symphony also names ASU, Dignity Health and Barrow Neurological Institute as research collaborators. Those affiliations do not establish present-day performance locations or proven health benefits, so they are described separately from the map.
The people who carry it
A musician’s work
travels with her.
Cellist Laurie Stearns Selby joined the Symphony in 1982. Alongside her concert career, she helped shape Mind Over Music and the orchestra’s health and wellness programs.
When she retired in 2026, she and her husband Tom committed a gift to community engagement and education—the work she had helped build.
“Tom and I made this gift because we believe so strongly in the Symphony’s community engagement programs.”
Laurie Stearns Selby · June 2026
From the Symphony’s published account, before the suspension announcement. Read Laurie’s story ↗
The music becomes a lesson
A different kind
of classroom.
In Mind Over Music, teachers and Symphony musicians connect music with science, technology, engineering and math. The Symphony also documents school concerts and chamber performances at Maricopa Community Colleges.
Someone has to walk into the classroom with an instrument. Someone has to make that first encounter possible. This is part of what we are asking our community to care for.
Explore the published education programs ↗The music becomes a meeting place
Not everyone can
come to the hall.
The Symphony’s community work has taken musicians into hospitals, care settings and facilities serving people experiencing homelessness.
Its public program description names Circle the City’s Downtown and Midtown facilities, Lodestar Day Resource Center, and St. Vincent de Paul at the Human Services Campus.
These are places where music can be shared by people who may never sit in a concert hall. Music belongs in these rooms, too.
Names are preserved as published; they do not confirm a current visit schedule or identify the room pictured.
Read about the community work ↗The music becomes someone else’s
Who gets to write
the next piece?
The Student Composition Project has offered young Arizona composers professional guidance, rehearsal experience and opportunities to hear selected works performed. Its published 2026/27 plans include SOUNDS Academy; those plans predate the suspension.
A piece of music
only they could write.
What a young person does next is unwritten. The chance to begin is worth protecting.
Around the Valley
Our community
is listening.
Local reporters are following the suspension, the musicians’ concerns and what this means for Phoenix.
KJZZ ·
Musicians demand financial transparency from Phoenix Symphony leadership
Cellist Bridget Pasker discusses musicians’ requests for financial records and a clear plan to bring the orchestra back.
FOX 10 Phoenix ·
Phoenix Symphony suspends season as musicians call for financial transparency
Violist Isabel Tannenbaum and concertgoers describe the personal stakes, alongside the board’s explanation of the financial pressures.
Arizona’s Family ·
Phoenix Symphony to suspend season, lay off musicians
Coverage of the announcement, the planned layoffs and the uncertainty about when performances could resume.
Selected local reporting, reviewed October 30, 2026. Links open the publishers’ articles; inclusion does not imply endorsement of this appeal.
A way to help
Give the music
a way forward.
The Symphony is asking for philanthropic support to preserve its future. A return depends on adequate financing and a sustainable operating plan; no restart date is assured.
Donate to The Phoenix SymphonyThe link takes you to the Symphony’s official giving page. Arizona Charts does not collect donations. Confirm any intended program restriction with the Symphony before giving.
Funding & recovery: what is known
- The immediate need
- The Symphony reports an operating cash shortage after recurring deficits. It is working on near-term financing and longer-term changes.
- What a gift would fund
- Ask the development team for the current approved use of funds, time period and gift terms, including whether a contribution supports obligations, a restart or specified community work.
- What remains unresolved
- The published near-term estimate is provisional, not an approved fundraising target. Funding alone does not guarantee a restart. The multi-year Crescendo campaign is separate from cash available for operations.
- What to request for a substantial gift
- An approved budget, remaining funding gap, conditions for restarting, and a named person responsible for progress reports.
Speak with the people doing the work.
For a substantial gift or a program-specific commitment, ask for Naquana Borrero, Vice President of Development, through the Symphony’s administrative office.
602-495-1117 Official staff directory & contact ↗Keep the possibility open
There is still
music to pass on.
For the teacher making room for a new kind of lesson. For the person who cannot get to the hall. For the young musician with something to say.
Let’s help make room for the next note.
Help preserve this music Funding & recovery ↑About this appeal
Created by Arizona Charts, from a love of music and a wish to keep it part of community life. This independent editorial appeal draws on the Symphony’s public reporting. It is not an official Phoenix Symphony publication or an endorsement by anyone pictured or quoted.
Sources, photographs & the illustrated network
The suspension and recovery information was reviewed October 29, 2026. For subsequent developments, consult the official updates. Program descriptions may span different seasons; they do not establish current schedules. Sources are linked beside each story and in each map detail.
Photographs come from the Symphony’s public program pages, with links to their original context. Rights remain with their respective holders; publication does not imply an open license. Captions do not infer an unnamed person’s circumstances, health or outcome.
The map is an editorial illustration of published programs and partners. Its positions, brightness and fading are not measurements, funding estimates or predictions of a particular partnership’s closure. The sliders affect only the illustration. Restoring light does not imply that real losses are instantly reversible. The diagram contains no decorative relationships, projected careers or measured health benefits.
Photographs recede as you scroll past and return when you scroll back. The closing photograph remains illuminated. Reduced-motion settings keep all photographs visible. The effect concerns opportunities to share music; people and partner facilities do not disappear.