Issue: June 2005
The President’s column typically covers aspects of recent orchestra negotiations. While many were rightfully concerned with negotiations last fall, few were prepared for what unfolded in St. Louis. I would like to offer some thoughts on one effect of the St. Louis melee. On March 13 I had the distinct pleasure to join more than thirty musicians from ten ICSOM orchestras who traveled to perform … [Read more...]
Issue: June 2005
Initially, I had not planned to write a column, but after receiving a call from our good friend Richard Totusek, I wanted to share our brief conversation. Brother Totusek has been ill for quite a while and just recently underwent a successful liver transplant. He asked that I share with you that he is on the mend, and he thanks you all for your cards and best wishes. I, too, extend my best … [Read more...]
Issue: June 2005
In the March 5, 2005 issue of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, music critic Sarah Bryan Miller writes, “Nobody won the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra Strike.” She is wrong on two counts. First, it was not a strike, it was a lockout. More importantly, it’s not accurate to say that nobody won. Randy Adams won hands down. Mr. Adams has been enormously successful in raising over $130 million in a … [Read more...]
Issue: June 2005
It's finally the time of year when all the dues from ICSOM orchestras have been paid and accounted for. Dues collected for 2004–05 totaled $168,740. These funds must last ICSOM until late fall, when dues start coming in again. Invoices will be distributed to all delegates in San Diego at the Conference. Delegates should then pass these on to their orchestra treasurers and/or local for payment … [Read more...]
Issue: June 2005
In a short piece in the January 2000 issue of Senza Sordino called “The ICSOM Imprint,” our esteemed former Senza Sordino editor, Marsha Schweitzer, related a moment that she and I shared while I was in Honolulu, substituting for a week or two with the orchestra there. We caught each other’s eye at an occurrence of a minor violation of a standard union rule, a rule of intermission timing. Of that … [Read more...]
Issue: June 2005
Lew Waldeck, former ICSOM delegate for the New York City Opera and the first director of the AFM Symphonic Services Division, died in January 2004 and left as his legacy an orchestral industry that has grown by leaps and bounds under his tutelage. During the 2001 AFM Convention, a resolution was passed in recognition of his incredible impact on the orchestral world in the US and Canada, and Lew … [Read more...]
Issue: June 2005
With the recording industry changing as it has over the years, we have witnessed too many orchestras lose recording contracts and syndicated radio deals. Some musicians now believe we must find new ways to allow our orchestras to market themselves through broadcasts and recordings. Some believe we must reassess the funding models for recording projects. Some fear that changes benefiting one area … [Read more...]
Issue: June 2005
As musicians, we are all keenly aware of the need for communities to support their local orchestras. We know that an orchestra’s value to its community reaches far beyond the concerts it presents. The loss of any orchestra is a terrible blow to a community’s cultural and educational foundations. That is why it is especially troubling to hear that any community or orchestra leader is seriously … [Read more...]
Issue: June 2005
The notorious muckraker Molly Ivins once observed that among the steps needed to combat a crisis in state government were the following: get the governor out from under his desk; place a foot firmly in the governor’s back; tell the governor, “Lead, you dumb sumbitch, it’s what we pay you for.” In the past year, orchestras across the U.S. have been confronting the changing nature of media as it … [Read more...]
Issue: June 2005
In the last issue of Senza Sordino, Doug Fisher asked whether we should have national agreements covering electronic media. While he clearly meant the question to be rhetorical, I would like to suggest that the right answer might be “no.” Collective bargaining agreements set minimum rates of pay (and, in almost all industries but ours, maximum rates as well) in order that employers can neither … [Read more...]
