Orchestra Budget by Amanda McClellan

Where does the money go?

mcc_orchestra — 2021-09-15 20:07:26 UTC

The county gives us $740 for the school year. With about 600 students in the orchestra, these funds don't go very far. We hate to ask you to do a fundraiser, and since we're frugal, this fee covers what we need.

Only $40?! What a great deal!!!!!

mcc_orchestra — 2021-09-15 20:08:12 UTC

The book now costs $15, so that's $25 to run our program. Private lessons after school with a professional are $60 an hour. We teach your child 105 hours a year. (105 x $60= $6,300... so paying $40 is a 99.6% discount over private instruction.)

2024's expenses

mcc_orchestra — 2021-09-15 20:09:23 UTC

Classroom expenses- $2642 (Tissues, office supplies, candy, paper, printing, etc.)

New Music- $357.99

Orchestra Supplies ~$1325 (Rosin, bows, strings, etc.)

Concert Fees- $500

Teacher Conference Attendance- $1236

Carpet Maintenance- $200

GMEA fees~ $2286

LGPE rehearsals, judges, clinicians- $984

Noteflight/Soundtrap/Smartmusic Accounts for all students- $10,500

Police Officers for all concerts at HMS- $1000

Recruiting materials~ $700

Past/future awesome purchases

mcc_orchestra — 2021-09-15 20:09:57 UTC

2024 7th grader tickets to see the Atlanta Symphony Orch- $3000

2021 Cameras and installation for the orchestra storage rooms- $1158.39

Wishlist for 2025- 2 classroom iPad airs to replace our 2010 ipad minis- $500

New Chairs- $114 per chair!!!

What about that $60 instrument fee?

mcc_orchestra — 2024-08-29 11:46:11 UTC

That is greatly important to us. Would you expect your car to run forever if you never changed it's oil? Of course not!!!

It's the same for our instruments. They need constant maintenance. Here are some typical repair costs:

New bow hair: $75-100

New Bridge: $100

Reglue an open seam: $75-100

Repair a crack: $100

Replace ONE Cello string: $25-100

Replace ONE Bass string: $50-150

In a perfect world, we'd replace the bow hair and all the strings every year. We'd replace bridges every couple years. In the real world, the instruments are on a 10 year rotation in our inventory to get updated... and that's if every child contributes. (We have 53 cellos, 49 violins, 30 violas, and 21 basses)