Issue: July 2006
Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra Picks Itself Up Out of the Dust Surrounded, bleeding heavily from multiple wounds, taking shots from management, media, local union, labor board, and even each other, the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra had a rough few months last season. This short progress report on the SLSO’s recovery is as much a testament to the seemingly boundless optimism and good will of the … [Read more...]
Issue: May 2006
The Puerto Rico Symphony Orchestra (PRSO) is ICSOM’s newest member, and that is something that takes both the PRSO and ICSOM to another level. The former because we have become part of the great family of symphonic musicians working towards shared goals; and the latter to have as a member an orchestra so representative of the diversity that exists in the symphonic orchestra world. The musicians of … [Read more...]
Issue: Chairperson's Reports
Just a few weeks ago, I came back from my second trip to Puerto Rico. There I helped members of the Puerto Rico Symphony Orchestra (PRSO), including orchestra committee chair and Local 555 president José Martin, negotiate with the management of the PRSO and the Corporación de las Artes Musicales (CAM), the governmental agency that oversees the PRSO and other musical arts in Puerto Rico. It is a … [Read more...]
Issue: May 2006
When I was a student, which seems an alarmingly long time ago, I remember reading a satirical piece called “An Efficiency Expert Looks at a Symphony Orchestra.” I thought I had saved a copy in my files, but a lengthy search the other afternoon proved fruitless. So, I “googled” it, and sure enough, I found a portion of it on some obscure website. The two excerpts I remembered most clearly were … [Read more...]
Issue: Counsel's Columns
Today’s “Peculiar Institution” The symphony orchestra is surely the only institution which, in times of fiscal distress, blames the crisis on its product and then declares that the solution lies in downgrading the quality thereof! This phenomenon was never more glaring than in the recent contretemps in Louisville, an orchestra which, after a glorious period of making some of the finest recordings … [Read more...]
Issue: May 2006
Nominating Committee Announcement In accordance with ICSOM bylaws, elections are to be held at the 2006 ICSOM Conference for the positions of Chair, Treasurer, Editor of Senza Sordino, and two Members at Large (all two-year terms), as well as for the third delegate to the 2007 AFM Convention. The duties of all ICSOM officers are spelled out in the ICSOM bylaws, which are available on the ICSOM … [Read more...]
Issue: December 2005
More than most we meet in our daily lives, orchestral musicians are blessed with a direct connection to those who came before, be they teachers, performers, conductors, or composers. Less directly, we are also tied to many other individuals from history: poets, painters, noblemen, emperors, and religious figures. Some may think, and we often hear, that our ties to the past are indicative of a dead … [Read more...]
Issue: December 2005
ICSOM was created because symphony musicians of the late 1950s realized that they were a specialized group within the AFM that needed to be able to represent themselves in contract negotiations. That right we won now allows us to shape our contracts to suit our special needs in working conditions, salary, pension, medical and instrument insurance, and employment security. We fought hard for this … [Read more...]
Issue: December 2005
I joined the American Federation of Musicians when I was just a teenager, and I still have my first union card to prove it. This was the late ’70s, and it was an amazing time for me. I was hearing Miles Davis’s music for the first time and performing it. I was hearing Beethoven’s Fifth for the first time and performing it. I was playing in concert halls, in country bars behind chicken wire … [Read more...]
Issue: December 2005
I recently finished reading Julie Ayer’s wonderful book, More Than Meets the Ear: How Symphony Musicians Made Labor History. I encourage you all to read this wonderful retelling of the formation of ICSOM and of the activism of ICSOM’s founders. It was their actions that began the long climb to the respect and impressive collective bargaining agreements (CBAs) that symphonic musicians possess … [Read more...]
