You have to wonder. We have a deep pool of highly talented and skilled players. We “punch above our weight” as our outgoing President, Elaine Calder, likes to say. We’re paid about 50% less than we should be. Our player complement is 15% down from the CBA mandatory minimums (amended by side letter). Our season lasts 38 weeks out of the year.<\/p>\n
Now, look at some of the opening proposals that managements of some 52 week orchestras have made in the past few months and weeks:<\/p>\n
Interesting, eh?<\/p>\n
The Oregon Symphony’s solution to its budgetary woes in the face of an unprecedented downturn in the local and national economy was reached over a period of several contract negotiations, and with the pain equally shared by both the management and musicians. To our credit, the musicians of the Oregon Symphony have been remarkably pragmatic about what is\/was possible in our particular corner of the world – and to a large extent, so has our board and management. The musicians would love to be playing year round and making a commensurate salary, I’m sure. Management would love to have a $100 million endowment fund and guaranteed long-term stability. But together, we figured out what was possible and sustainable, and though it involved pain on both ‘sides’, we made those changes and have put ourselves in a place where stability is no longer a pipe dream, and growth is no longer inconceivable.<\/p>\n
But as Elaine Calder would say, we’re in Portland – not somewhere else. What works here may not be applicable to another region. So, to look to the Oregon Symphony and see a new model for the symphony orchestra is a tempting, but ill-advised decision to make. It’s easy to slash and burn. It’s very difficult to build. I look at Indianapolis with their $100 million dollar endowment. How much of that is unrestricted? Calder took the bold step of raiding our unrestricted endowment funds to eliminate the deficit that threatened to send the OSO into bankruptcy – and at that point our endowment was scarcely $30 million at most. The board and management could have asked for that $6-8 million to come entirely out of the musicians’ pockets, both in terms of salary and weeks worked, but they did not. Perhaps some of our brother and sister organizations should look at that part of the Oregon Symphony equation.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
You have to wonder. We have a deep pool of highly talented and skilled players. We “punch above our weight” as our outgoing President, Elaine Calder, likes to say. We’re paid about 50% less than we should be. Our player complement is 15% down from the CBA mandatory minimums (amended by side letter). Our season […]<\/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_feature_clip_id":0,"_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":[1783,186,2,2296],"tags":[3115,2775,2406,716,177,1525],"class_list":["post-7811","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-administration-the-orchestra-world-music","category-labor-issues","category-the-orchestra-world","category-union-music","tag-atlanta-symphony","tag-bill-eddins","tag-blog","tag-indianapolis-symphony","tag-negotiations","tag-saint-paul-chamber-orchestra"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pa8kC-21Z","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2305,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2009\/04\/08\/more-cuts-for-orchestras\/","url_meta":{"origin":7811,"position":0},"title":"more cuts for orchestras","author":"Charles Noble","date":"April 8, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"UPDATE 4\/08 [link] The Utah Symphony\/Opera cut 11.5% of of their benefits plus Keith Lockhart takes 10% pay reduction. [link] The Atlanta Symphony musicians have reopened their previously negotiated CBA (which ran through 2011) and will be taking an 8.8% pay cut by the end of 2011 (the first drop\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News"","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"scissors","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/04\/scissors-400x221.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":13976,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2016\/01\/17\/2016-2017-season-announcements\/","url_meta":{"origin":7811,"position":1},"title":"2016-2017 season announcements","author":"Charles Noble","date":"January 17, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Page Moved: subsequent updates will be made at this location. It's that time of year, when orchestras around the country start trotting out their programs for the next season, hoping to get a good start on ticket sales and advance buzz. I'm going to link to the announcements here, and\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":674,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2008\/01\/19\/columbus-lost-at-sea\/","url_meta":{"origin":7811,"position":2},"title":"columbus lost at sea?","author":"Charles Noble","date":"January 19, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"In a move which will likely result in the permanent crippling of a once fine orchestra, the management of the Columbus Symphony (Ohio) is proposing massive cuts of both orchestra personnel positions and the length of the season: the former down from 53 to 31 full-time musicians, the latter from\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":2952,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2009\/08\/06\/more-cuts-at-us-orchestras\/","url_meta":{"origin":7811,"position":3},"title":"more cuts at US orchestras","author":"Charles Noble","date":"August 6, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"The Minnesota Orchestra and Houston Symphony have just concluded negotiations with their musicians that have resulted in substantial cuts in wages, either via pay cuts, unpaid furloughs, or both. 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