REACHING OUT

Ralph Patino, a Coral Gables lawyer who joined the board in January, leads the orchestra's outreach efforts and expects them to pay off with more donations and volunteers.

''You cannot reap seeds that you haven't planted,'' Patino says. ``In order to ask people to support the symphony financially, the community has to get to know the symphony.''

Observers of South Florida's classical-music scene are cautiously optimistic about the ensemble's evolution.

Julian Kreeger, president of the Miami presenting group Friends of Chamber Music, says the symphony's new leadership is beginning to have a positive effect where it matters most, on stage.

''Marturet is to be commended for trying to raise the quality of the orchestra, and for what he has managed to achieve in a relatively short time,'' Kreeger says. ''It is encouraging that he has expanded the orchestra's repertoire,'' including some Mahler symphonies and Gustav Holst's The Planets.

MONEY MATTERS

Still, Diaz-Balart says he aims to increase the orchestra's annual budget from $1 million in 2008-09, to $1.5 million in 2009-10. Much of the increase will have to come from donations.

''Our fundraising from the private sector in the past had been completely inadequate,'' he says, ``because we had not gotten ourselves together enough to go after the private funding.''

Though its fundraising goals are more modest than those of larger cultural organizations, the symphony faces a grim economic climate for nonprofit arts groups.

Miami City Ballet, which no longer performs to live music, has laid off dancers and pared its $14.8 million annual budget to slightly more than $11 million.

Florida Grand Opera cut its $14-million annual budget about 30 percent, froze wages and canceled a concert series.

And the Concert Association of Florida, once the major presenter of classical music in Miami-Dade and Broward, filed for bankruptcy liquidation in February.

The Concert Association's closure widened the void left by the 2003 bankruptcy of the Florida Philharmonic and the demise of Broward Friends of Chamber Music.

Smaller groups, such as Firebird Chamber Orchestra and Boca Raton Symphonia, have emerged to help fill the void, but Diaz-Balart says Miami Symphony is positioned to become the region's resident professional orchestra.

''It is our moment to make it, because there is a vacuum,'' he says. ``We all know that.''

Marturet is not entirely encouraged by the potential opportunities for Miami Symphony.

''If such a strong organization as the Concert Association of Florida happens to go,'' he says, ``it means some things about the community, the way arts and culture are working in the city.''

Marturet says he is pleased that the Cleveland Orchestra performs an annual, three-week residency in Miami, but he craves a more permanent presence for classical music. Money alone, he says, won't accomplish that goal.

''Money helps a lot,'' he says, ``but . . . first of all you need strong artistic leadership and a goal. We have to know where we're going.''

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