DOS Orchestra #29 - 2 February, 1995

News from the world of professional orchestras.
Copyright 1995, International Conference of Symphony and Opera Musicians

Topics

Akron Symphony: City Funding under Siege

The Akron (OH) City Council declined to approve contracts with three local arts groups, including the Akron Symphony, at a meeting on January 23. The Council's action was discussed at a meeting of the Parks and Recreation Committee of the City Council on January 30, when proponents of the city funding for the Akron Symphony, the Ohio Ballet, and the Akron Art Museum were to present their views. The Ohio Ballet and the Akron Symphony use the funding to produce free summer concerts, which drew 114,000 audience members in 1994, according to Councilman Jeff Fusco. He told the Akron Beacon-Journal "the problem is we have more things on our wish list than we have money to pay for them all, but I don't think this is the place to take out the knife."

Councilmen Bob Otterman, Bruce Kilby, and John Otterman have suggested cutting the funding for the free concerts in order to divert more money to the city's community centers.

Charlotte Symphony: Arts Council Gets Major Gifts

The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Arts and Science Council announced on January 25 that it had received two gifts of $1 million each towards its goal of raising a $25 million endowment to fund local arts groups, including the Charlotte Symphony. The gifts came from Duke Power Company Foundation and the C.D. Spangler Foundation.

The endowment campaign, which ends its current public phase on March 6, has raised $20 million so far.

Louisville Orchestra: Board Demands Further Concessions

The management and board of directors of the Louisville Orchestra released a proposal on January 30 to reduce the budget for full-time musicians by 37% for the 1995-96 through 97-98 seasons. The plan would place a salary cap of $1.45 million on salaries for full-time musicians, compared to the $2.32 million projected for next season under the current labor agreement.

The Louisville Courier-Journal calculated that the salary for a section play would plunge from $27,000 next season under the current labor agreement to $17,000 under management's plan. If salaries were to remain the same, the number of full-time musicians would have to be cut from the current 67 to as few as 44.

The board's proposal represents a a third attempt to renegotiate the orchestra's labor agreement, which was reached in the spring of 1993. That agreement 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 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 which was hotly disputed by the musicians and their consultants. Sue Carroll, a hornist with the orchestra and chair of the orchestra committee, told the board before the November 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."

Talks between the musicians and management took place on January 30 and 31. Liza Hirsch Du Brul, legal counsel for the musicians, told the Courier-Journal that management "still have not completed their proposal [and] didn't flesh out their proposal as to what 45 musicians would (make up) the Louisville Orchestra." Wayne Brown, executive director of the orchestra, told the Courier-Journal that it would be premature to release such details, although some details have already been made public, such as management's desire to be able to schedule work weeks during the orchestra's August break, making it much harder for the musicians to find and accept supplemental employment during those weeks.

Management has said it wants its proposal agreed to by March 7. Brown told the Courier-Journal that "without an agreement for the 1995-965 season, the board will have to decide whether to exercise a provision - based on financial performance - to continue to operate the organization. We would prefer to achieve a transition from our current position to our proposed position in a cooperative way. We will exercise other options if we are unsuccessful in achieving that position in a cooperative way."

Donald Gottlieb, who plays piccolo with the orchestra and who was the head of the Players Committee that negotiated the concessions in April 1994, told the Courier-Journal that "it was made clear to us when we signed those concessions that (they) would probably not get us through this year... [but for management] to come back and ask us for almost twice the amount is shocking to me." Players Committee chair Sue Carroll said that "our position is still that they haven't made a tight case why these drastic changes are necessary. We don't feel it's possible to fulfill the artistic mission of an orchestra if we cut its numbers."

The board's demand for further concessions comes after pressure from the Louisville Fund for the Arts. Alan Cowen, president of the fund, 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." The Fund for the Arts and the Louisville Orchestra share a number of board members.

The Louisville Orchestra also has very close links with the American Symphony Orchestra League. Carole Birkhead, a member of the board of the Louisville Orchestra who served on the committee that prepared the November recommendation for cuts, is chair of the ASOL board, while orchestra executive director Wayne Brown is one of seven vice-chairmen. In addition, the Louisville Orchestra hired Dr. Thomas Wolf, who wrote "The Financial Condition of Symphony Orchestras" report for the ASOL in 1992, to perform an "organizational assessment" of the Louisville Orchestra in 1994, for which his firm reportedly received $50,000. In the ASOL report, Dr. Wolf directly challenged the model of the full-time professional orchestra, stating that "he reject[ed] the notion that this (the 90-to-100 piece orchestra) [was] the ideal structure to which orchestras must aspire."

National Endowment Announces First-Quarter Grants

The National Endowment for the Arts announced $24 million in first-quarter grants on January 23. The announcement comes as the agency is fighting for its existence in the new Republican-controlled Congress, where the leadership of the new majorities have threatened to "de-fund" the agency and rescind funds already appropriated.

One of the larger grants, for $230,000, went to the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis. The Walker sponsored the now-notorious performance by Ron Athey, which became a lightning rod for criticism of the agency.

Philadelphia Orchestra: Head of Academy of Music to Quit

Willard S. Boothby, president of the Philadelphia Orchestra's home, the Academy of Music, told an audience of almost 3,000 people at the 138th Anniversary Concert and Ball on January 28 that he would resign at the end of the year. He has been president of the Academy since 1988,

Boothby's tenure as president of the 19th century hall became controversial during the past year as a result of the Academy's proposed $44 million renovation, which was widely criticized for the radical changes it would have made in the ambience of the Academy. Critics ranged from the other arts groups who use the facility, and who complained bitterly that the changes would make the hall virtually unusable for them in order to benefit the orchestra, which is in the process of raising money to build its own hall, to officials of the National Park Service, who hinted that the renovations might cost the hall its status as an historical landmark.

In the midst of the controversy, the board of the Philadelphia Orchestra voted unanimously - save for Boothby's dissenting vote - to shelve the plan and substitute a more modest attempt at renovation.

Questions still remain about the future of the Academy, including its ownership after the orchestra moves into its own facility. Key local funders, such as the Pew Charitable Trust, have stated that they need to be assured of the future of the Academy before they can commit funding for the new concert hall.

A spokesperson for the orchestra said that the Philadelphia Orchestra Association would select a successor to Boothby at the September annual meeting.

Wichita Symphony Reports Fundraising Success

The Wichita Symphony reported that the board of directors exceeded their goal for the 1994-95 maintenance fund drive, collecting 1,166 gifts worth a total of $336,726 since last March. Orchestra officials are also projecting a balanced budget for the orchestra, which would be the 15th consecutive season with a balanced budget. The new president of the board, Dan Sevart, told the Wichita "Eagle" that "the state of the orchestra is excellent."

The orchestra also reported that the value of the orchestra's endowment stands at $3 million.

Deaths

Franz Allers, who conducted the original productions of "Brigadoon," "My Fair Lady," and "Camelot," as well as many of the leading opera companies in Europe and the United States, died on January 26 in Las Vegas at the age of 89. He was hospitalized there with pneumonia while traveling to visit family members.

Allers was born in Carlsbad in 1905 and began his musical studies at the age of 7 on the violin. He moved to Berlin in 1920, where he became a member of the Berlin Philharmonic. He fled Nazi Germany in 1938 after establishing a distinguished European career as an opera and symphony conductor.

Allers began his long association with the musicals of Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe in 1956, when he conducted the Broadway premiere of "My Fair Lady," for which he selected the orchestra and helped revise the orchestration as well. He later conducted the local premieres of the musical in Berlin, Munich, Milan, Moscow, and Vienna.

When Lerner and Loewe dissolved their partnership in 1962, Allers returned to Europe, where he continued his conducting career. He lived in Munich for the last part of his life.

His last appearance as a conductor was at the revival of "My Fair Lady" in Cleveland.

He is survived by his daughter Carol Hopper of Santa Fe (NM) and a brother-in-law. He is to be buried in Munich.
Caroline Shaw, wife of Atlanta Symphony music director emeritus Robert Shaw, died in Atlanta at the age of 58 of cancer. She was active in many Atlanta arts organizations as a board member and fundraiser, including the High Museum of Art, the Atlanta Arts Alliance, the Atlanta Opera Guild and the Atlanta Symphony. She was named Atlanta's Woman of the Year in 1968.
Copyright 1995, International Conference of Symphony and Opera Musicians

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