DOS Orchestra #10 - 30 August 94

News from the world of professional orchestras.
Copyright 1994, International Conference of Symphony and Opera Musicians

Topics

ICSOM Conference: Information on Organizing and Bankruptcy

The International Conference of Symphony and Opera Musicians (ICSOM) held its annual conference from August 18 - 22 In Vail CO. In addition to the usual business of the conference, which was attended by delegates from over 40 orchestras, the president, vice-president, and other officers of the American Federation of Musicians, the president of the Regional Orchestra Players' Association, and other guests, a number of speakers addressed issues crucial to orchestra musicians.

Los Angeles City Councilman Joel Wachs spoke on the Los Angeles Endowment for the Arts, ICSOM consultant Bill Roehl spoke on labor-management cooperation and the role of musicians on their orchestra's board of directors, Ray Abernathy of the public relations firm Abernathy and Miller spoke on the successful strike against American Airlines by the flight attendants' union, and Patricia Polach, of the law firm Bredhoff & Kaiser, addressed the topic of how bankruptcy laws are used to break collective bargaining agreements. In addition, ICSOM counsel Leonard Leibowitz spoke on the subject of negotiations and Lew Waldeck, retired head of the AFM's Symphonic Services Division, led a seminar on the role of the orchestra committee.

ICSOM Chair Bradford D. Buckley, President David Angus, Secretary Lucinda-Lewis, and Senza Sordino Editor Robert Levine were reelected for two-year terms. Governing Board member-at-large Stephanie Tretick was elected ICSOM Treasurer, replacing the retiring Carolyn Parks. Mary Plaine of the Baltimore Symphony was elected to serve the remainder of Tretick's term as member-at-large.

Among other items of business, the delegates voted to create several new categories of membership, including associate membership for foreign orchestras.

Milan Symphony: Music Director Dies

Vladimir Delman, music director of the Milan Symphony Orchestra, died of cancer on August 27th at the age of 71. Delman, who was born in Leningrad and emigrated to Italy in 1974, was a founder and former director of Moscow's chamber music theater, and a former director of the Bologna community theater in the 1980's. He also made films about classical music for Italian television.

Milwaukee Symphony: Executive Director Quits

Joan H. Squires, Executive Director of the Milwaukee Symphony since March 1993, announced her resignation on August 17. Squires is leaving to become president and chief executive officer of the Phoenix Symphony Orchestra, an organization approximately one-half the size of the MSO, effective December 15.

Squires, who joined the MSO as general manager in 1990, was appointed acting executive director upon the sudden resignation of then-executive director Gary L. Good in November 1992, and was appointed executive director in March 1993.

Squires said that the move would "provide my husband and me with the opportunity to live in a part of the country which has long held our interest, and where we had hoped to reside at some point in our professional lives."

Conductor Mitch Miller, who has long-standing ties to the MSO, told the Milwaukee Sentinel that a good executive director "may have to offend the board. [They] may have to offend management. But [they] keep the goodwill of the musicians - and (Squires) did not."

Sara Harmelink, violist with the MSO and chairperson of the MSO Players' Council, said that "the task ahead is to search for a strong leader with excellent managerial and development skills who can help unify the MSO and provide a sound artistic and financial vision for the future."

Squires moves from running an orchestra with a budget of approximately $11 million to an orchestra with a budget of around $5.5 million. The move comes after a job search on her part that has lasted for a number of months, and follows the most bitter labor negotiations in the MSO's history, which led not only to a 15% cut in the musicians' income and a loss of seven weeks of their 48-week season, but also a prolonged stream of very negative publicity about the the MSO's management and board. Musicians complained repeatedly about Squires' negotiating style and tactics, as well as about the fact that she refused to accept the same cut in her income as Executive Director that the musicians had accepted, even though her income had increased substantially upon her promotion to executive director, according to documents filed with the IRS. Last summer she agreed to a 7% cut in her income of $94,255, according to documents filed with the IRS, up from her reported figure of $65,980 in 1991-92.

In June the musicians discovered that, two weeks prior to the settlement of the negotiations, the MSO had leased a new Chrysler Concorde for Squires, thus effectively reducing the cut in her compensation package to virtually nil. All other employees of the MSO, with the exception of some lower-level staff, took pay cuts as part of the MSO's financial restructuring.

Staff turnover during Squires' tenure was also high, especially in senior staff positions, where the position of director of development lay vacant for nearly a year during negotiations in which the management pleaded an inability to raise funds as justifying the cuts asked of the musicians. In addition to staff losses, the MSO lost both its music director, Zdenek Macal, and its new concertmaster, David Taylor. Taylor returned to his position with the Chicago Symphony and Macal announced his intention to leave the MSO for the New Jersey Symphony.

Squires was the first graduate of the American Symphony Orchestra League fellowship program to run a major American orchestra. She received Master of Business Administration and Master of Music degrees from the University of Michigan, and an undergraduate degree in music education from Lebanon Valley College in Annville PA.

Paris Opera: Fired Music Director Reinstated by Court

Myung Whung Chung, who was fired on August 12 as music director of the Paris Opera, was reinstated by a French court on August 29 to conduct the company's season opener, Verdi's "Simon Boccanegra." The court ruled that the Paris Opera illegally broke Chung's contract, which gave him control over artistic matters. The ruling only lets Chung conduct the one production while awaiting a final ruling on the case. Management announced that it would appeal the decision.

In an interview prior to the court's decision, Chung said of the opera management, "they offered me unacceptable conditions to force me out. It's as clear as daylight. By attacking me and saying that I'm inflexible, that I'm blocking the opera . . . they have forced me to defend myself after forcing me to leave."

Chung said that the dispute centered on issues of artistic control, and that he would not accept an out-of-court settlement because his aim was to clear his name. He also said the conflict could have been avoided if management had told him it wanted to hire a new conductor, and that he would have left readily in that case.

Jean-Paul Cluzel, current manager of the opera, denied trying to force Chung to resign, saying "what he says is false. But it is up to him to take the legal action he deems necessary. We will defend ourselves. I am not going to hire him back."

Chung had a contract through the year 2000, but incoming manager Hughes Gall, hired with orders to reduce the Paris Opera's chronic deficit, wanted the contract renegotiated downwards. The company lost $7.5 million last year and expects to lose another $4.4 million this year.

Phoenix Symphony: New Executive Director

The Phoenix Symphony announced on August 17 that Joan H. Squires had been appointed president and chief executive officer. Squires, 37, comes to the Phoenix Symphony from the Milwaukee Symphony, where she held the post of Executive Director.

ROPA Conference

The Regional Orchestra Players' Association (ROPA) held its annual conference in Dallas, Texas, from Aug. 10th to Aug. 14th.

Elections were held and the following people were instated: Andrew Brandt (Shreveport Symphony), President Barbara Nielsen (New Haven Symphony), Secretary Michael Karr (Nashville Symphony), Treasurer (re-elected) Laura Ross (Nashville Symphony), Member-at-Large 2-year term (re-elected) Janis Nilsen (Charlotte Symphony), Member-at-Large 2-year term Kevin Hall (Fort Worth Symphony), Member-at-Large 1-year term Irene Wade (Memphis Symphony), Editor of THE LEADING TONE

Remaining officers are: Cheryl Fippen (San Jose Symphony), Vice-president Paula Wright (Austin Symphony), Member-at-Large

Other events in the conference included in-depth reports about the Tulsa Philharmonic bankruptcy; a panel discussion on the Miami City Ballet Orchestra lockout and loss of the orchestra; and recent problems sustained by the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra. Other speakers included Tammy Kirk (Sec'y, Tulsa Local) on OPWIM (The Organization of Professional Women in Music); Sam Folio of the IEB; M. Delores Thrower on the AFM-EP fund; John Schulman (ROPA Legal Counsel) on Right-to-Wark (as a free-rider) laws and the effect on musicians of various health-related laws (Workers' Comp; Disability Insurance, the Americans With Disabilities Act, and the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993); Evelyne Robitaille of OCSM/OMOSC; Brad Buckley of ICSOM; Florence Nelson, director of the SSD. Lew Waldeck spoke and was given a plaque and an official ROPA baseball cap in admiration for all his work on behalf of symphony musicians around the U.S. and Canada as well as his guidance in the founding of ROPA.

The new ROPA President, Andrew Brandt, was previously Secretary of ROPA and succeeds Diane Merrill, who is retiring her office to take a job with the Symphonic Services Division of the AFM. Brandt is principal bassoonist of the Shreveport (Louisiana) Symphony and the Longview (Texas) Symphony. He has also served ROPA in the past as the first Editor of The Leading Tone newsletter and as a member-at-large. He received the Bachelor of Music Education degree from Baldwin-Wallace College and the Master of Music degree with distinction from Indiana University, with additional study at the Cleveland Institute of Music, Case Western Reserve University. Before moving to Shreveport, he performed professionally in the Ohio Chamber Orchestra, the Evansville Philharmonic, the Owensboro Symphony, and the American Wind Symphony Orchestra.

ROPA (the Regional Orchestra Players' Association) is a conference of the American Federation of Musicians and represents 47 orchestras throughout the continental United States.

San Antonio Symphony Appoints Concertmaster

The San Antonio Symphony announced on August 7 that violinist Stephanie Sant' Ambrogio had been appointed Concertmaster of the San Antonio Symphony for the 1994-95 season. In recent seasons Ms. Sant' Ambrogio has been a symphony and chamber violinist, as well as a teacher in the Cleveland area. She replaces Greg Mulligan, San Antonio Symphony Concertmaster since 1987, who left the orchestra to join the Baltimore Symphony.

In 1993, Ms. Sant' Ambrogio was named an artistic ambassador for the United States Information Agency, an award which took her on a recital tour to locations as diverse as Sweden, Estonia, and Ghana. In 1994 she toured Italy in a string quartet collaboration with Mikhail Baryshnikov's White Oak Dance Project. Prior to these tours, Ms. Sant' Ambrogio served as Concertmaster of the Akron Symphony Orchestra and Assistant Professor of Violin at Kent State University. She made her solo debut in 1992 with the Cleveland Orchestra and Leonard Slatkin.

As a chamber player, she has performed and recorded with such artists as William Preucil, Richard Goode, David Schifrin, Walter Trampler, Anne Epperson, James Buswell, and Gunther Schuller. Ms. Sant' Ambrogio has also performed with members of the Miami String Quartet and has been a guest artist with The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. She has toured extensively as a founding member of the Amici String Quartet and with Myriad, sixteen young artists who perform an eclectic repertoire of chamber works.

Stephanie Sant' Ambrogio joined The Cleveland Orchestra immediately after graduating from The Eastman School of Music where she studied with, and was assistant to, Donald Weilerstein. At the time of her resignation from the Cleveland Orchestra in 1992, she had been promoted to First Assistant Principal Second Violin position. Sant' Ambrogio received her Bachelor of Music degree from Indiana University.

Sant' Ambrogio's appointment is for one year only. The orchestra plans to hold auditions for a permanent concertmaster during the 1994-95 season. The San Antonio Symphony Concertmaster chair is named for local arts patron Elizabeth H. Maddux.

Tax Court: Musicians 2, IRS 0

In a decision that could affect the tax liabilities of thousands of American professional musicians, a Federal Tax Court ruled 10-7 in favor of two New York Philharmonic violinists who were challenging the Internal Revenue Service.

The decision, which was made on August 22, restored the deduction that Richard and Fiona Simon claimed regarding their two Tourte bows. The Simons had claimed 21% depreciation on the bows, which cost $21,500 and $20,000. The IRS claimed that the bows were works of art that appreciated with the passage of time, while the Simons, represented by Arthur Pelikow of New York City, contended that the bows were tools that were subject to wear and tear and thus depreciable under revisions to the tax code made in 1981.

Judge David Laro, who presided over the trial in December, wrote that the bows "fit snugly within the definition of recovery property" under the 1981 tax code changes. He rejected the IRS's argument that the "useful life" of the bows was impossible to determine and that they were thus not eligible for a deduction. Judge Laro ruled that the Simons did not have to establish useful life, and that the fact that the asset might have value in a separate market was irrelevant.

In a dissenting opinion, Judge Lapsely W. Hamblen Jr. wrote that the majority opinion was "sophistical and wrong" and would create a tax shelter for musicians.

The court also ruled in favor of Brian P. Liddle, a Philadelphia musician who claimed a depreciation deduction on his Ruggeri bass. Judge Laro cited the Simon case as a precedent in his ruling.

The IRS has not decided whether to appeal the Simon case, according to a spokesperson.

Both ICSOM and the Local 802 (New York City) of the American Federation of Musicians contributed to the Simons' court costs.

Vienna Philharmonic at Salzburg: First Woman Conductor

Anne Manson became the first woman to conduct the Vienna Philharmonic on August 26th, when she conducted a production of Mussorgsky's opera "Boris Godunov" at the Salzburg Festival. Manson, who is a native of Boston, studied at Harvard University and the Royal College of Music in London. She has been music director of the Mecklenburg Oper since 1988.

In an interview with the Associated Press, Manson, 32, said about the Vienna Philharmonic "it's not just that they play well ... there's an incredible sensitivity to what you show." It was not reported what the musicians of the VPO, which has had a history of employment discrimination against women musicians spanning decades, thought of Ms. Manson.
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