Issue: June 2026
The AFM-Symphony Opera Strike Fund has been in operation for more than 55 years. During the first 30 of those years, the levels of dues and benefits were increased many times, most likely in an acknowledgement that previous benefit levels had become insufficient for the Fund’s intended purpose. The last change to those benefit levels was implemented in 1999. At this point, an increase in benefit … [Read more...]
Issue: Chairperson's Reports
For as long as most of us have been in this field, we have heard some version of the same complaints: classical music is dying, deficits are unsustainable, audiences are disappearing, and the old model no longer works. While the language has changed, we’ve been hearing essentially the same argument for over a century that orchestras, as we know them, cannot survive unless musicians accept some … [Read more...]
Issue: June 2026
Prior to each AFM Convention, the Governing Board asks each delegate of our member orchestras to give a sense of what their orchestras have faced in the last few years as well as the challenges they face going forward. Responses were collected between March and May and represent a snapshot of the conditions in our field during the last three years. Note that charter members of ICSOM are denoted … [Read more...]
Issue: April 2026
With the start of the 2025–26 season, the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra has returned to its historic concert hall following a two-year transformational expansion and renovation. Powell Hall has served as the SLSO’s home since 1968, and the former vaudeville house and movie theater was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2001. The $140 million project created the Jack C. Taylor … [Read more...]
Issue: April 2026
As we head into another CBA expiration season, I want to bring our attention back to some of the important issues that continue to trouble our industry. Too often, we treat these problems as separate from bargaining, as though they belong to some other conversation. They do not. Bargaining is where our values become policy and where our aspirations are tested against what we are actually … [Read more...]
Issue: April 2026
In Article I (Re: The Library), I laid the groundwork for something most of us already know instinctively: The library isn’t an add-on to orchestral life. It’s part of the artistry and the infrastructure that quietly holds everything together. That infrastructure—the preparation, decisions, and labor that exist long before anything happens onstage—is easy to overlook precisely because it usually … [Read more...]
Issue: December 2025
The musicians of the Toledo Symphony Orchestra (TSO) are thrilled to rejoin ICSOM after over 30 years with the Regional Orchestra Players Association (ROPA). Our return to ICSOM is a milestone in an era of growth for the orchestra. Led by Music Director Alain Trudel, the TSO presents regular Masterworks (mainstage classical), Pops, Family, and Chamber concert series, as well as various … [Read more...]
Issue: Chairperson's Reports
The world today feels more confusing and chaotic than ever. We worry about the future of our jobs when management talks about changes in philanthropy, shifting ticket-buying habits, and, once again, the need for a “new model.” More broadly, we wonder what place symphony orchestras will occupy in a rapidly changing world. In a landscape increasingly dominated by digital platforms and AI-driven … [Read more...]
Issue: December 2025
When people think about an orchestra, they tend to think in terms of artistry: the musicians onstage, the conductor on the podium, the sound in the hall. 10/10. No notes. But what’s often missed is that artistry doesn’t begin at the downbeat. It is shaped by an often overlooked infrastructure long before anyone walks onstage—through preparation, coordination, sourced and shared materials, … [Read more...]
Issue: December 2025
Editor’s note: Sometime last year my friend Campbell MacDonald and I were discussing our experience serving in our union—what we have learned over the years, what has worked for us (and what hasn’t), where we go for inspiration, etc. Eventually, Campbell pointed me towards an article by Brian O. Shepherd, originally published on Substack in Labor Politics and later reprinted in Labor Notes. … [Read more...]
