Senza Sordino

Purpose, History, and Scope

Senza Sordino is the official publication of the International Conference of Symphony and Opera Musicians. First published in 1963, the newsletter is both ICSOM’s public face and its primary vehicle for communicating with member orchestras. It is the voice of the professional orchestra musician in the United States. ICSOM stands as one of the oldest and most successful examples of union democracy in the country, and Senza Sordino provides powerful historical documentation of that fact.

Senza Sordino has an international circulation approaching six thousand readers. It is read by current and retired members of U.S. and foreign orchestras. It is sent to orchestra managements, union officials, music journalists, and music medicine professionals. It is to be found in the offices of legal firms, government agencies, arts organizations, and in public and university libraries across the country. It has been quoted in The New York Times and in other newspapers in the U.S. and abroad. The Musicians Union of Japan translates the newsletter into Japanese.

Distribution Procedures

The Governing Board recently initiated the direct mailing of Senza Sordino to musicians of member orchestras. Delegates are sent a few extra copies for local distribution. An electronic version of Senza Sordino is posted on the ICSOM website when a new issue goes to the printer.

Direct mailings use address information contained in the ICSOM Directory database. Within each orchestra, musicians should discuss distribution problems with their ICSOM delegate. If you cannot fix a problem by correcting an entry in the ICSOM Directory database, please advise the editor. Also let the editor know if you receive too few or too many extra copies.

Content Specifications

The success of Senza Sordino is critically dependent upon the active participation of you, the ICSOM delegate. Delegates are encouraged to submit material for publication in Senza Sordino; please refer to the accompanying list of suggested topics. Another good source of information regarding possible topics is the complete index of Senza Sordino that appeared as Volume 32, Number 4. This index can be accessed, along with other recent issues of the newsletter, at the ICSOM website. The complete archive of Senza Sordino can be found on the ICSOM CD.

All such material must come directly from, or with the knowledge and approval of, the ICSOM delegate. Letters to the editor are encouraged and may be submitted by anyone.

Articles submitted for publication in Senza Sordino should be original articles not previously published. If articles are also being submitted for publication elsewhere, the editor should be so informed. We may reprint material that has appeared in other publications if the material might be of interest to ICSOM members.

Graphics (photos, drawings, cartoons) add immeasurable interest to the newsletter layout and are also strongly encouraged. Please include proper credits for such graphics with your submission.

Technical Specifications

Textual materials such as articles, letters and news blurbs should be submitted electronically if at all possible. E-mail text or e-mail attachments of plain text, RTF files, or Microsoft Word documents are preferred. Graphics should be submitted in digital form if available, either by email (preferred) or on disk (IBM format preferred). Most standard graphic formats can be utilized, but TIF files, scanned at 300 dpi, are preferred. Materials submitted should be free of copyright restrictions and of a quality high enough for good reproduction. Please contact the editor if you have any questions about the appropriate computer format for your submission.

If material is not available in digital form, the editor will attempt to work with what is available. Photographs should be glossies as large as possible (up to 8” x 10”). Black and white photos are preferred, but good color photos can be used. To reproduce properly, drawings and cartoons should be large, drawn with black ink on smooth white paper.

Editorial Policy

Articles submitted about events in your orchestra should accurately represent your orchestra’s collective thought and feeling, or provide a balance of conflicting views. Clear distinctions should be made between personal opinions and representative views. While Senza Sordino is the official journal of an organization that is both pro-union and supportive of our art form, it also seeks to reflect the wide range of thought and opinion within our profession. No submission will be rejected solely because it does not conform to some preconceived position. Senza Sordino is not a forum for settling orchestras’ internal or local union disputes, and we will not publish articles or letters on such topics. However, once such disputes are settled, news reporting and analysis of the situation may appear in Senza Sordino if the information is deemed to be useful or instructive to ICSOM’s general membership.

The editor’s normal process is to revise and edit submitted material, in consultation with the author, to produce a piece that everyone will find satisfactory. However, the editor reserves the right to edit articles and letters as necessary for length, grammar, style, clarity, to confine the issues to those germane to ICSOM, and to protect the author and Senza Sordino from overstepping the bounds of the law and standards of civil discourse, as well as to avoid especially long sentences such as this one.

Content for each issue is sent to ICSOM legal counsel and to the ICSOM Governing Board for review in advance of publication; ICSOM legal counsel and the ICSOM chairperson must approve each issue before publication.

Timetable and Production Schedule

Please submit all material as soon as possible. Do not expect material submitted after an issue’s copy deadline to be considered for publication until the next issue. Deadlines and publication dates may be changed depending on such factors as availability or timeliness of material, revisions made after review, and production requirements. The editor reserves the right to place material in a subsequent issue even if it is submitted before a copy deadline.

Volumes are numbered by calendar year. Each volume has between four and six issues, with five being typical. A representative production schedule for a typical year is given below.

Deadlines
Issue	Copy	Proof	Print	Mail
One	January 30	February 12	February 21	February 28
Two	April 15	April 29	May 8	May 15
Three	June 15	June 29	July 8	July 15
ICSOM Conference
Four	September 1	September 12	September 22	September 30
Five	November 8	November 22	December 2	December 10

Senza Sordino

This list is only the beginning. Anything is possible. If in doubt, send it in! Submissions need not be in final form. You are encouraged to submit ideas, raw material, incomplete articles and stories. The editor may be able to use your material for an article, or combine it with material submitted by others. Every attempt will be made to use material you submit.

• Events and news about your orchestra of value and relevance to other musicians
• Interesting interactions and collaborations among musicians, union, board, management, and community
• Your orchestra’s education, outreach, or other innovative programs
• Music medicine and musician health issues
• Scientific or technical information: concert hall acoustics, different tuning techniques and theories, new materials in instrument construction, etc.
• Book reviews
• Problems in contract enforcement: the functioning of audition or artistic advisory committees, tour conditions, calculating overtime payments, regulating taping of the orchestra, etc.
• Orchestra Committees: organization, administration, communication, bylaws, developing consensus, union relationship, etc.
• The government in and around the workplace: Equal Opportunity employment, copyright, OSHA, employee status, immigration laws, etc.
• Lobbying and political activity concerning the arts
• Foreign orchestras: events, funding, union activity, political climate
• Education and training for orchestra careers
• Human-interest stories: a musician overcoming obstacles, a community member who saved the orchestra, the orchestra’s service to a special audience
• Humor, nostalgia, or interesting facts from your orchestra’s history or archives
• Musicians’ business and legal concerns: insurance coverage, pension, taxes, handling teaching or other non-employee income, etc.
• Electronic media: radio/TV contracts, reporting/monitoring process, amount of activity, competitive pricing
• Analytical articles on music, art, humanities: value of music to society, changes in the public perception of art, politics and art, critics and criticism, etc.

Additional information about Senza Sordino can be found in the editor’s annual report.

Submissions should be sent to: