The thought of the Pennsylvania Academy of Music being forced to vacate the North Prince street facility built by its founders (albeit with other people’s money, including John Q. Public’s) even as they struggle for the very survival of the school they founded twenty years ago is understandably upsetting to students, friends, and admirers of Francis Veri and Michael Jamanis. It seems Lancaster’s self-styled upper crust was content to eat at the Jamanises’ table, attend the various black tie events, even take in a few concerts, but was unwilling to open it’s checkbook–or at least not to the tune of $30 million.
To be sure the Jamanises made a lot if mistakes. But they did not make them alone. This is not a case of a Iowa farmer building a baseball diamond in his cornfield to the voice of “build it and they will come.” A lot of business people who should have known better signed off on a business plan which, in retrospect, had little chance of succeeding even in the best of times.
Whatever the bank plans for the North Prince Street building, hopefully it will do it quickly so that we can all be spared the further sad spectacle of septagenarian concert musicians and educators struggling to succeed where the business community failed.
