DOS Orchestra #21 - 22 November 94

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

Topics

Buffalo Philharmonic: County Executive Cuts Grants

Erie County Executive Gorski has proposed cutting $403,000 from a proposed budget of $4.28 million for arts and community groups in the Buffalo area, a cut that some of the groups are asking the Erie County legislature to overturn. The cuts include a reduction of $66,000 in the original budgeted grant of $635,000 to the Buffalo Philharmonic. BPO board member Joseph Makowski said that the proposed cut could set back efforts to solve the orchestra's financial problems. The orchestra, which has suffered through a series of cutbacks over the past several years, has just announced a fund drive goal of $2.2 million.

Albert De Benedetti, a member of the Erie County legislature who chaired a recent hearing on the proposed cuts, said that most county lawmakers would like to restore the cuts if possible.

Cairo Opera: Aida in Luxor

The Cairo Opera House has announced plans to stage a performance of Verdi's "Aida" in Luxor for the second time in seven years. The production, which will feature soprani Wilhelmenia Fernandez and Pauletta de Vaughn alternating in the role of Aida and tenors Giuseppe Giacomini and Bruno Sebastian as Radames, will be staged in a 5,000 seat auditorium in front of the temple of Queen Hatshepsut on the west bank of the Nile, and will run from November 26 through December 1. The company expects to attracts 38,000 people to the run, at ticket prices ranging from $100 to $300.

The production is intended in part to attract tourists back to Egypt in the wake of attacks by Islamic militants on Egypt's tourist industry, which brought in $2.38 billion last year. Local merchants are anticipating that the production will bring in much-needed revenue to the Luxor region, with hotel occupancy rates expected to double.

The Cairo Opera House estimates that the production will cost $3.5 million, which they hope to recoup through ticket sales.

Cincinnati Symphony Performs with Japanese Chorus

The Ninth Symphony Chorus of Gifu (Japan) joined with the Cincinnati Symphony and the May Festival Chorus in performances of (what else?) Beethoven's Symphony #9 on November 18 and 19.

Beethoven's Ninth is a holiday tradition in Japan, and the Gifu Chorus, which celebrates its 20th anniversary this year, was formed for the specific purpose of performing the work every December at the Gifu Civic Auditorium.

The soloists for the performance were Benita Valente, Claudine Carlson, Neil Rosenshein, and Paul Plishka. The conductor for the program, which opened with the Schubert "Unfinished" symphony, was CSO music director Jesus Lopez-Cobos.

Charlotte Symphony To Celebrate Hanukkah

Virtually all professional orchestras in North America do some Christmas music during the holiday season, but, in a rather unusual bit of programming, the Charlotte Symphony will perform a program devoted to the celebration of Hanukkah on November 30. The program, which will be conducted by Michael Isaacson, founder and music director of the Israel Pops, will feature the husband-and-wife team of Herschel and Judy Fox.

The concert will be sponsored by the Jewish Federation of Greater Charlotte.

Detroit Symphony: Union Official Hired as Operations Manager

Michael McGillivray, chair of the orchestra committee of the Alabama Symphony Orchestra and secretary-treasurer of the Birmingham musicians' union, Local 256-733 AFM, has been appointed Orchestra Personnel and Operations Manager of the Detroit Symphony. McGillivray led the musicians of the ASO during the period of the orchestra's management declaring bankruptcy and using the bankruptcy filing to obviate the collective bargaining agreement with the union, which attempt ultimately resulted in the demise of the Alabama Symphony.

His departure was hailed by Metropolitan Arts Council head Walter Sechriest, who said that McGillivray's departure "will get one of the red flags out of the pot," referring to local efforts to reestablish an orchestra in Birmingham. The red flag responded "if my departure stimulates something, I'll be cheering from Detroit."

Florida Orchestra: Musicians Offer Concessions

from the Florida Orchestra Musicians' Association, November 21:

The musicians of the Florida Orchestra, represented by the Florida Orchestra Musicians' Association (FOMA) and American Federation of Musicians Local 427-721, have made a bold move as part of a major recovery effort by the organization as a whole.

John Bannon, FOMA Chairperson and FPO principal timpanist, stated "as part of mutual commitments to excellence, to the preservation of the cultural jewel that we have all worked to create and to polish, the musician have stepped up to the plate to donate $369,000 in concessions: we will forgive the payment of a debt in that amount to the musicians' pension plan and join the AFM-Employers Pension Plan beginning in September 1995. This, matched by the administrative staff taking the same pension concession as well as a contribution by Maestro Jahja Ling of $10,000, enables FPO to balance its budget." The musicians have also agreed to reduce the number of weeks in the current season and the 1995-96 season to 35 in each season.

"With this agreement, the musicians have given and done all we can, all at once. We do so in the spirit which we hope all whose lives and businesses are affected in any way by the Orchestra can share. We also do so to demonstrate the need for others also to step forward with similar determination and commitment to invest in the community as we have, to supply the building blocks upon which our commitment must rest - especially our friends in the three communities to which the Orchestra's presence is so important," Bannon added, referring to FPO's $3 million "Save the Music" recovery plan and Annual Fund Drive. The musicians' donations are tied to the successful completion of these efforts.

Karen Dumke, a violist and FOMA committee member, observed "we love this orchestra, and have made sacrifice after sacrifice in its behalf; in fact, each musician in the Florida Orchestra has already given back over $6,000 in wage and benefit concessions since 1990, not counting this final one, which rather cuts to the bone. We hope it will inspire the needed investment in the Orchestra's future that will keep the halls in which we perform filled with the high-quality symphonic music the community deserves."

James Wilson, the Orchestra's principal horn, continued: "giving up something so vital as a sizable portion of our retirement security, and which already was only a modest benefit, is a difficult and bitter experience. It has taken us many hours of discussion and soul-searching to reconcile this donation with our interest in preserving the Florida Orchestra as we all know it. Our sacrifice is based on this commitment."

John Bannon ended the musicians' remarks by adding:"when we met with our orchestra colleagues after our Sunday performance of Giuseppe Verdi's "Requiem" in Ruth Eckerd Hall, it was clear both how difficult this situation is for all of us and how positively we feel about FPO's ability to rebuild itself and thrive. We've tried to pave the way for the Board and the community, once and for all, to make it happen." Resident Conductor Thomas Wilkins then read a statement from Mr. Ling about his donation.

The Orchestra met until midnight Sunday and voted through this morning, ratifying the agreement. The vote count and details of the agreement's language were not release.
(end)

Kathryn Holm, executive director of the Florida Orchestra, said in response: "we are astounded and grateful to the musicians. I know from past experience that this was a very difficult and extremely painful decision for them to make. It is an unprecedented event in our industry. We have been talking recently with potential major donors, and I am hopeful that this generous offer will inspire some major leaps forward toward our $3 million goal. Their sacrifice should continue to be recognized in a tangible way, as it already has by Maestro Ling."

Jane Peppard, Chairwoman of the Board of Trustees of the FPO, said "this is stunning! With this extraordinary offer on the part of the musicians and Maestro Ling, we are seeing a unique cooperative partnership being forged between the Tampa Bay community and its fine orchestra. We are most grateful and truly excited about the impact this will have on our future."

Albert K. Webster, former executive director of the New York Philharmonic, who had been brought in by the FPO board as a consultant, said "this dramatic gesture by the musicians is a wonderful statement of their faith in the Tampa Bay community and their desire to be a significant and active part of the resolution of the Florida Orchestra's problems. As far as I know, this is an unprecedented action by the musicians of an orchestra to voluntarily come forward with such a substantial dollar contribution to their own orchestra."

Louisville Orchestra Board Demands More Concessions

The board of directors of the Louisville Orchestra voted on November 21 to accept a board committee's recommendation to cut the compensation of the musicians for the 1995-96 season by $280,000 in response to a projected deficit of $409,000 season, a projection which is hotly disputed by the musicians. Management officials claim that such a deficit could close down the orchestra because of the lack of cash reserves, although the orchestra's endowment is nearly double the orchestra's annual budget and the orchestra enjoys a relatively low ratio of accumulated deficit to budget.

In 1993, the musicians ratified a labor agreement which called for a salary freeze in the first year, 2.1% increases in each of the following two years, and for musicians to share in any surplus the orchestra might run during that period. However, in April 1994, before the first season covered by the labor agreement was over, the orchestra's board of directors asked for and received salary cuts from the musicians that reduced the 1994 season by one week and the 1995 season from the contracted 45 weeks to 40 weeks.

The budget projections from the board that are being used to justify the board's latest request for concessions from the musicians have drawn fire from two financial and management consultants to the musicians. The consultants, using figures provided by the management, projected that, if there were no increase in income during the 1996 season over comparable totals in 1994 and 1995, the orchestra would actually run a surplus of $96,000, not the deficit of $409,000 that the board projects.

Some of the questions raised by the consultants about the board's projections include: Sue Carroll, a hornist with the orchestra and chair of the orchestra committee, told the board before the vote that "the document on which you've been asked to base your decision to ignore a legally binding contract, which is being used to force us all into precipitous decisions about the size, composition, and even the mission of the Louisville Orchestra, appears to have been manipulated to prove that the orchestra is unable to manage itself any longer."

In an article in the Louisville Courier-Journal after the board had voted to ask the musicians for further concessions, Carroll said "we cannot see a reason now for renegotiation. We don't see the kind of financial crisis" that the board claims exists "and we still want to make sure that people understand the situation before they would consider restructuring of the organization."

To make matters more interesting, Allan Cowen, president of the Louisville Fund for the Arts, which gives the orchestra approximately $1 million per year, has unilaterally demanded that the orchestra develop "a fiscally creditable budget that includes elimination of the accumulated debt within five years" and "product refocus." In addition, he required "a viable restructure of the Louisville Orchestra's configuration to match financial resources with market demands [that] should take into account orchestral needs of the Opera and Ballet." These requirements would have to be met before the Fund would consider the orchestra's allocation for the 1995-96 season.

The Fund for the Arts and the Louisville Orchestra share a number of board members, and Allan Cowen served on the task force that guided the efforts of the Louisville Orchestra restructure committee. That committee, which was led by a paid consultant who was the former vice-president of the Fund for the Arts, oversaw the preparation of the budget draft on which the orchestra board's vote was based. Two other members of that restructure committee were board member Carole Birkhead and Louisville Orchestra executive director Wayne Brown. Birkhead is the chairman of the board of the American Symphony Orchestra League and Brown is one of seven vice-chairmen.

Seattle Symphony: City Council Uneasy about New Hall

In the wake of last week's defeat at the polls of a $609 million bond measure to pay for library, police headquarters, and school construction, some members of the Seattle City Council are suggesting a second look at the proposed new home for the Seattle Symphony.

The Council's reactions followed a presentation of three options for the new 2,500 seat concert hall, which ranged in cost from $91.9 million to $109.1 million. The Council's final vote to proceed with the project is scheduled for December 19. The city's share of the cost is estimated to be $35 million to $39 million, which would include $15 million for purchase of land downtown for the hall.

Council member Jane Noland, questioning the ability of the orchestra to raise the necessary money from the private sector to complete the hall, suggested reviving the original plan to build the hall near the Seattle Center, where a private foundation has offered a site. She said "the added costs of building downtown are far more significant than the Council was told this summer. People have raised a lot of questions about how we spend money, and we need to be extraordinarily careful."

Martha Choe, another member of the Council, suggested that the city examine pairing the new hall with the proposed new library on one site. "We need to take a new look at it. Are we really sure it won't work?" she said.

Choe's idea met with criticism from officials from both the library and the orchestra. Dayna Kennedy, a spokesperson for the orchestra, claimed that said "to squash or stack [the library and hall] would diminish the quality of both buildings. I would go so far as to say it would be ugly," while city librarian Liz Strop said the city would "end up with second-rate buildings" by putting both the library and the hall on the same site.
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