{"id":593,"date":"2007-12-15T10:38:07","date_gmt":"2007-12-15T18:38:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2007\/12\/15\/damning-article-on-seattle-symphony\/"},"modified":"2013-02-07T18:25:43","modified_gmt":"2013-02-08T02:25:43","slug":"damning-article-on-seattle-symphony","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2007\/12\/15\/damning-article-on-seattle-symphony\/","title":{"rendered":"damning article on seattle symphony"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"conductor<\/p>\n

The New York Times today published an article of not insignificant length<\/a> dedicated to the Seattle Symphony and its intense level of discord between its musicians and its music director and conductor Gerard Schwarz.<\/p>\n

\n

Music<\/p>\n

In Seattle, a Fugue for Orchestra and Rancor<\/p>\n

By DANIEL J. WAKIN and JAMES R. OESTREICH<\/p>\n

Published: December 16, 2007<\/p>\n

The Seattle Symphony Orchestra\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s recent history serves as a cautionary tale on how, in an artistic hothouse, a tangle of emotion and politics can veer out of control and take on a life of its own.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

There is precious little new information brought to light compared to articles that previously appeared in the Seattle Times<\/em> and the Seattle Weekly<\/em>, but there are a few details which were either not released by those papers or weren’t available to them at that time.<\/p>\n

\"Violinist
\nviolinist Peter Kamen<\/p>\n

This national, high-profile coverage comes just as a lawsuit is set to begin court proceedings in Seattle in January. Peter Kamen, a violinist in the orchestra since 1981, alleges that Schwarz has been harassing and bullying him due to behavior that is due to an anxiety disorder, and that this is discrimination.<\/p>\n

For example, the player survey whose results were quashed by the orchestra management has a couple of key statistics now revealed: by a vote of 61 to 8 the musicians said that new artistic leadership was needed, and a vote of 61 to 12 indicated that a search committee should be formed to search for a new music director. Considering the varied agendas and desires of a symphony orchestra membership, such number indicate as close to unanimity as one can get in situations such as this.<\/p>\n

Clearly, something is wrong in Seattle – things should not have gotten to this point. Who is to blame? I’ll leave that for the reader to decide – and will await the coverage of the lawsuit and its fallout.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The New York Times today published an article of not insignificant length dedicated to the Seattle Symphony and its intense level of discord between its musicians and its music director and conductor Gerard Schwarz.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":303,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[186,115,2],"tags":[86,112,55,203,3674,62,3659],"class_list":["post-593","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-labor-issues","category-music","category-the-orchestra-world","tag-conductor","tag-management","tag-orchestra","tag-schwarz","tag-seattle","tag-symphony","tag-violin"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pa8kC-9z","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1113,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2008\/09\/10\/schwarz-to-leave-seattle-symphony\/","url_meta":{"origin":593,"position":0},"title":"schwarz to leave seattle symphony","author":"Charles Noble","date":"September 10, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"In a stunning announcement, the Seattle Symphony has issued a release stating that music director Gerard Schwarz will be stepping down at the conclusion of the 2010 - 2011 season. He will take on the role of conductor laureate beginning in 2011. Seattle, WA\u00a0\u201c Gerard Schwarz, Seattle Symphony's Music Director\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "conducting"","block_context":{"text":"conducting","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/conducting\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.seattlesymphony.org\/~\/media\/images\/artist%20226x280\/orchestra\/schwarzgerard1cbenvanhouten2202013copy.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":668,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2008\/01\/17\/more-seattle-news\/","url_meta":{"origin":593,"position":1},"title":"more seattle news","author":"Charles Noble","date":"January 17, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"The Seattle Weekly has printed an article centering around the \"one-woman law firm\" of Brenda Little and her lawsuit against Gerard Schwarz and the Seattle Symphony on behalf of violinist Peter Kaman. Read the entire article here. Here's a tidbit: Tuxedo Disjunction Not every toxic work situation can be remedied\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "labor issues"","block_context":{"text":"labor issues","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/labor-issues\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":624,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2007\/12\/29\/letters-in-response-to-seattle-nytimes-article\/","url_meta":{"origin":593,"position":2},"title":"letters in response to Seattle NYTimes article","author":"Charles Noble","date":"December 29, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"In the upcoming Sunday edition of the New York Times, several letters are printed in the Arts section - you can read the complete letters (as printed) here. Here are some of the best parts of some of them: ...The implication that I was hired by Gerard Schwarz because of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "labor issues"","block_context":{"text":"labor issues","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/labor-issues\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":581,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2007\/12\/11\/schwarz-breaks-a-leg-literally\/","url_meta":{"origin":593,"position":3},"title":"Schwarz breaks a leg (literally)","author":"Charles Noble","date":"December 11, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Crosscut Seattle reports: Seattle Symphony conductor and music director Gerard Schwarz broke his left leg and ankle last Thursday in a skiing accident. He faces surgery later this week, the SSO reports, with full recovery expected.","rel":"","context":"In "the orchestra world"","block_context":{"text":"the orchestra world","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/the-orchestra-world\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4317,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2010\/04\/01\/oso-music-director-to-seattle\/","url_meta":{"origin":593,"position":4},"title":"oso music director to seattle","author":"Charles Noble","date":"April 1, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"In a stunning announcement to a small group of musicians, staff and board members in Seattle's Benaroya Hall, Carlos Kalmar announced that he will be taking the helm of the Seattle Symphony after current music director Gerard Schwarz ends his tenure at the close of the 2010 - 2011 season.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "the orchestra world"","block_context":{"text":"the orchestra world","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/the-orchestra-world\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":640,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2008\/01\/04\/schwarz-to-utah\/","url_meta":{"origin":593,"position":5},"title":"schwarz to utah?","author":"Charles Noble","date":"January 4, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Some eagle-eyed reading by James Bash has come up with the possibility that Seattle Symphony music director Gerard Schwarz could be eyeing a move to the Utah Symphony & Opera.\u00c2\u00a0 I'm not sure why he'd make this move, unless the lawsuit against the symphony goes against him, but even then\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "music"","block_context":{"text":"music","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/593","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/303"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=593"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/593\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=593"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=593"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=593"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}