Last June I was recruited to lead the Honolulu Symphony until a permanent executive was hired, a process in its final stages.

It did not take me long to discover that the symphony shares the same challenges as many orchestras today. The entire orchestra industry is changing as a result of the decline of music education in schools over the past 30 years and changes in entertainment habits that have created a visually oriented society.

The decline in audience for classical music started about 20 years ago. Orchestras are conservative institutions, so making changes does not come easy for us. For example, musicians are still wearing tails, which originated at the time musicians were considered low-class workers at the palaces of European kings, together with the kitchen help and service staff.

So what has the symphony accomplished during the past six months? It now has a clear institutional direction, articulated in a "case statement" and endorsed formally by the board of directors. The case statement speaks to "serving the entire population of Hawai'i; making education and community engagement a priority; developing a customer service culture; and being an entertainment resource for everyone."

I am proud to say we have created a clear identity and image for the Honolulu Symphony, something it has lacked for many years.

The symphony also became more transparent, improved internal and external communications, heightened morale, and most importantly, installed financial discipline. During the past two years, we have reduced our credit line from $2 million to $370,000, and our endowment stands at $6 million. This endowment can never be invaded, but rather it is kept separate from the symphony's day-to-day finances and even has its own board of directors.

As someone who has heard hundreds of orchestras, I can say that this is a very good orchestra artistically and your musicians play any music at a high level. Since we are looking for a new music director, the orchestra has been facing a different conductor every program, which is not an easy task. That's like having a new boss every week. Honolulu's musicians have coped with this challenge admirably.

The Honolulu Symphony is the cornerstone of the performing arts in this community. It not only plays 14 classical and seven pops programs annually, but also perform for the opera and the ballet. It provides music education to about 30,000 students. Its musicians teach more than 800 private students. What would this community be without the Honolulu Symphony?

Let's be clear: We still have major challenges to face. Expenses still exceed income by a few hundred thousand dollars annually, and both earned income (ticket sales) and fundraising need improving.

The symphony is in a process of making changes to the season structure and marketing strategies, including performing the first market research in many years. It is trying to be more accessible to a wider audience by changing the "concert experience" as well as the "product" itself. The symphony has made headway in our fundraising activities, having recruited a new professional team, and by the end of December 2005, we were 50 percent ahead of same time last year.

However, there is still a gap to close, which will require more community support, both in contributions and ticket sales.

Some have suggested to me, "If you don't have the money, then why don't you reduce the size of the orchestra?" First, the symphony employs only 63 musicians full time (30 weeks) and 20 part time, compared to most orchestras that employ around 100 musicians full time. Second, cutting the number of musicians would limit the repertoire and therefore limit the audience (not everyone likes to hear early classics all the time), which would also result in lower contributions. It is called "the spiral effect" and it would ultimately leave the symphony without an orchestra at all, and who wants that?

The Honolulu Symphony needs to build better bridges with the community at large, not just the regular concertgoers. This institution belongs to the community and needs to come toward the people of Hawai'i in a very proactive way. The symphony has designed a plan addressing how to meet this challenge, but it is still lacking the funds to execute the plan.

The long-term solutions are similar to the ones examined by the entire industry: increase in revenues (earned and contributed), increase in the size of the endowment, which should be at about $25 million or three times the size of our annual budget, change the concert experience to attract the generation that should be coming now and is not, and persuade your community leaders to support the orchestra, especially the political and corporate leaders. The symphony needs their vocal endorsement and perhaps even an occasional attendance at concert. If they lead, others will follow.

As a professional in the orchestra industry for many years, I believe that if the symphony focuses on these challenges and the solutions, its future is bright. We cannot do it by ourselves, though — everyone in this community needs to participate, and then the music will play on.

Gideon Toeplitz is the interim president of the Honolulu Symphony. He wrote this commentary for The Advertiser.