Even the wording of last week’s announcement from Toronto Symphony Orchestra board chair George Lewis was startling.

“With the greatest reluctance I have accepted Andrew’s decision to retire later this year,” was how he put it.

That’s Andrew Shaw, the president and CEO of the orchestra for the past decade.

The announcement, released on a Friday afternoon — as if in the hopes that it would be overlooked by gossip-mongers on their way out of town for the weekend — caught our city’s cultural world by surprise.

Shaw is the guy who is largely credited with saving the TSO from disaster after its near-death crisis in 2001, when bankruptcy and scandal loomed, and the entire board of directors had to resign.

And apparently there’s no one waiting the wings to guide the TSO through its next decade, which will no doubt bring new challenges and survival strategies.

However, the TSO’s music director, Peter Oundjian, who has been conducting the orchestra since 2004, has had his contract extended to the end of the 2016-2017 season.

“I originally planned to stay for 10 years and I’ve stretched that to almost 12,” Shaw told me during a phone chat, sounding calm and downright jovial. “I’m overdue to take some time out.”

Shaw, 62, is married to cellist Shauna Ralston, which guarantees he will continue living in the world of classical music.

It was Shaw who presided over the resurgence of the TSO, putting a strong team in place, finding new ways to fill the seats and raise the spirits of both audiences and musicians, while bringing in enough revenue to cover costs and at the same time minimizing the pain of a deficit left over from the bad old days.

But the past few years have been more stressful than his early seasons at the TSO, because of the economic downturn. Last fall, after celebrating its 90th anniversary, the orchestra posted a deficit of almost $1 million on a $25-million budget. And few will be surprised if there is another big shortfall this year.

Like many major cultural organizations, the TSO has been caught in a perfect storm. Since the economic downturn began in 2008, major gifts from donors have become an endangered species.

Meanwhile, as Shaw explains, there has been a major change in the ticket-buying habits of audiences for all the performing arts. People tend to wait much longer before buying tickets to an event, and price is more of an issue than ever.

The way Shaw sees it, he stayed on during this rocky period to make sure the orchestra got through the ordeal without slashing and burning its organization or diminishing its programs.

Now he is convinced the worst is over, and the environment will improve for the TSO and other not-for-profit performing arts groups.

Nevertheless, Shaw’s successor may be forced to cut costs and find new sources of revenue. Twelve years after its near-collapse, the TSO is carrying a deficit close to $10 million. And when interest rates cease to be almost laughably low, that deficit will have to be tackled out one way or another.

Will the audience ever go back to its old ways of buying tickets months in advance and at higher prices? I wouldn’t bet on it.

Still, the resurgence of the TSO during Andrew Shaw’s time has been one of Canada’s cultural miracles. And that has happened during years when a number of symphony orchestras elsewhere were finding it impossible to survive the woes of mounting debt and vanishing audiences.

“Andrew will be deeply missed by everyone in and around the organization,” Lewis says in his long goodbye.

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...

I wouldn’t assume Shaw will be missed by everyone who worked with him. Stormy weather takes its toll on arts organizations, and no doubt sour notes were sometimes played loudly offstage at the TSO office.

Still, Shaw’s successor will need both talent and luck to make the orchestra’s next era as successful as the one now coming to an end.

Read more about: