The Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra ended its last fiscal year with a $293,000 shortfall on a $26.8 million budget, returning to a deficit situation for the first time in five years.

At the ISO's annual meeting on Monday, Simon Crookall, the orchestra's president and chief executive officer, said the shortfall for the fiscal year ending Aug. 31, 2008 occurred because "contributed and earned income had not kept pace" with increased production expenses.

Robert S. Kaspar, chairman of the ISO board of directors, said the board and managers are reevaluating the orchestra's current "business model," with an eye toward beefing up the roughly $120 million endowment, increasing earned income and containing costs.

The ISO has posted modest surpluses (of up to $10,820) for each of the four previous fiscal years.

The orchestra battled deficits of $284,000 and $545,000 in fiscal years 2001-02 and 2002-03. Many orchestras struggled financially in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

ISO executives also reported at the annual meeting that 96,000 attended the Marsh Symphony on the Prairie series last summer. That was one of the strongest turnouts in the event's 26-year history.