Gidwitz

For American orchestras, Asia has become a land of opportunity -- the world's hottest market for classical music, the place a symphony goes to prove it belongs among the nation's elite.The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra leaves Saturday for a monthlong tour of the Far East, hoping to generate the kind of national and international acclaim that followed its trip to Europe seven years ago."A success in East Asia, particularly in Japan, will really put us on the map," says music director David Zinman, who will conduct 18 concerts in Korea, Taiwan and Japan.

CHICAGO -- "Money," Roman Pucinski is saying as Dan Rostenkowski takes the stage. "It's about money."Pucinski should know. He and Rostenkowski were both elected to Congress from Chicago in 1958. While Rosty stayed to become chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, Pucinski returned home after 14 years to serve as an alderman, a seat he held until 1991.Now, at age 74, his voice reduced to a whisper, he still helps out a friend in need, he still serves The Machine.This is the Democratic Machine whose obituary has been written by the media for decades but which still manages to return people like Dan Rostenkowski to Congress.

NEW YORK -- Peter Visceglia had just spent $4,000 for a piece of fine art: a drawing of a round-headed, big-eared, gap-toothed Valentine named Alfred E. Neuman.What, him worry? "You can't put a price on your childhood," he said happily at Christie's auction house yesterday.About 200 die-hard MAD fans flooded Christie's, hoping to walk out with favorite covers and cartoons from a magazine famous for its comic cynicism.More than 300 pieces of the original artwork, published from 1966 to 1975, went on sale.

The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra is joining a growing chorus of American orchestras sounding a sour financial note.The BSO expects to run a deficit of about $800,000 this year, according to executive director John Gidwitz. That would be the orchestra's first shortfall since 1986, when it embarked on an acclaimed $40 million endowment campaign that, with the help of a six-year, $10 million state grant, was designed to prevent it from going in the red.Much of the BSO's deficit, which represents about 5 percent of the BSO's annual $17 million operating budget, is the result of reductions in anticipated government support, Mr. Gidwitz said yesterday.

The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra is joining a growing chorus of American orchestras sounding a sour financial note.The BSO expects to run a deficit of about $800,000 this year, according to executive director John Gidwitz. That would be the orchestra's first shortfall since 1986, when it embarked on an acclaimed $40-million endowment campaign that, with the help of a six-year, $10-million state grant, was designed to prevent it from going in the red.Much of the BSO's deficit, which represents about 5 percent of the BSO's annual $17 million operating budget, is the result of reductions in anticipated government support, Mr. Gidwitz said yesterday.

The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra completed its 1989-90 fiscal year with a net loss of $55,000, which was still $20,000 within its budget (the sixth straight year within budget), according to the financial summary for the fiscal year ending Aug. 31, 1990.John Gidwitz, executive director, said after this year, however, the BSO will face tougher fund-raising conditions when it no longer gets at least $1 million in state bridge grants it has received for the past five years and hopes for in a final grant this year.

BALTIMORE SYMPHONY Orchestra audiences -- no surprise to anyone -- are largely white, middle- and upper-class gatherings listening to mostly white music for two hours in the warm cocoon of Meyerhoff Symphony Hall.How to get more people of color, less money and differen backgrounds and tastes in the hall and bring the BSO closer to where they live remains an acknowledged major challenge for the BSO, corporate Baltimore and patrons.One step for five years has been the annual "All-Baltimor Concert," financed by a $1 million grant from the Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. Selected local non-profit groups sell all the tickets and get all the proceeds.