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This Time for Sure at the Charleston Symphony Orchestra

There was a whole lot of nothin’ going on in Detroit today, but yesterday in Charleston it looks as if the orchestra will be up and running again.

Although the Charleston Symphony Orchestra board and musicians reached a contract agreement last week, they hadn’t settled the sticky matter of a National Labor Review Board complaint that the musicians’ union had filed against the orchestra for stopping work last March.

Yesterday, as reported on the Charleston Post and Courier website, the union will drop the complaint in return for musician control over 23% of the board seats. As constituted, that means that the musicians will nominate members to hold 5 of 21 seats. They had asked for 10.

They had also asked that the board president and negotiating chair resign; no word on whether that will happen.

The Charleston Symphony lost 12 musicians in this contract–they’re down to only 24–and their base pay is now only $14,000. But hopefully, the musicians now can feel as if they have a voice, some degree of agency over their own situation. I wouldn’t want to be at the next board meeting, though.

John Lennon’s "Happy Christmas": Entirely Appropriate Christmas Music

Somewhere there are photos of me, decked out in wire-rimmed hippie glasses, sitting at a piano and playing “Imagine” with my junior-high rock band at a school talent contest.

As a kid, I was a bit of a John Lennon fan–needless to say–and it was great to see Open Culture post, among other things, Lennon and Yoko Ono’s Dick Cavett Show interview as a tribute on this anniversary of the Beatle’s death.

I’ve already shown you some Christmas music that’s just so wrong, but today it’s worth mentioning John Lennon’s “Happy Christmas (War is Over)” as music that’s pretty well the best there is, at least of the last 40 years of so. There are tons of homemade videos of the song on YouTube; here’s one:

An Orchestra Success Story in Madison

Jacob Stockinger at The Well-Tempered Ear is crowing about his hometown orchestra, the Madison Symphony. Apparently, they practically sold out their holiday concerts this season, and are fiscally sound.

It’s hard to compare this group to the Detroit Symphony, which has a more extensive season and a much larger budget (or did before the strike), but the energy of their marketing–which should be a statement of faith in the music and the performances–is a model everyone can follow.

Charleston Symphony Board and Musicians Reach Agreement. Never Mind, No They Don’t.

They’re certainly keeping things interesting down there.

Last Wednesday, we heard that the board and musicians had agreed to a contract that would get the Charleston Symphony Orchestra up and running again. (The CSO suspended operations in March.) It cuts the number of musicians from 36 to 24 (who will only get $14,000/year plus health insurance) and trims the budget by $1 million (to only $1.3 million).

But there’s still one small matter to settle: the musicians still have a complaint filed with the National Labor Relations Board against the orchestra brass (no pun intended) for shutting down operations back in March.

The musicians and the local American Federation of Musicians are smartly using this as leverage to gain some board power. First, they want board president Ted Legasey and board bargaining committee head Marty Klaper gone. Then, the musicians want 10 new board members to be appointed from a list of nominees they provide.

Today, the board made their own counter-offer. No word yet from the union on whether it accepts.

This is a sprightly show of moxie on the part of the Charleston band members, and a wise move. At a time when there’s simply no money, grab control.

Bartok Lived in Riverdale Too

It ends up that Hungarian composer Bela Bartok lived in the Bronx, just down the street from where I live now. Small world, eh?

After leaving Europe to avoid the Nazis, Bartok settled in Forest Hills, Queens in 1940. The next year, he crossed the Harlem River to Cambridge Avenue in Riverdale. Apparently, the well-treed parks of the neighborhood put the composer at ease and reminded him of Budapest; he stayed for three years before moving to 57th Street, close to Carnegie Hall. He passed in 1945.

While in Riverdale, Bartok worked for Columbia University as a researcher–he was a renowned collector of Hungarian folk music–and also composed his most famous work, the Concerto for Orchestra, which the Boston Symphony Orchestra premiered in 1944. Here’s the last movement:


You can hear snippets of this piece and get a little background on NPR.org.

Louisville Orchestra Goes Bankrupt

Earlier this week, an anonymous donor helped the Louisville Orchestra make payroll. Clearly, the gift wasn’t enough to help in the long term. Today, the orchestra filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

This doesn’t mean the end; it does, however, signal big changes as management throws itself on the mercy of the courts. In particular, it looks as if they want to cut the number of musicians to 55 from 71.

Because they’re paid up to December 15, the orchestra will play their Nutcracker performances–they begin tomorrow–up to that date. How depressing. 

Something to Do with the Kids on a Sunday Morning That’s Not Church

The downtown bar (Le) Poisson Rouge on Bleeker Street in Manhattan is opening its doors this Sunday at 11 AM for the second Baby Got Bach children’s concert.

Baby Got Bach is a new series founded by pianist Orli Shaham. The inaugural show was November 21, and this weekend Baby Got Bach is all about dance, complete with ballerina.

It looks as if there’ll be lots of stuff for the youngsters to do. Family (two adults, two children) tickets are $40. 

Louisville Orchestra Makes Payroll This Week, Thanks to Secret Donor

WFPL in Louisville noted yesterday that a donatation from an anonymous source helped the Louisville Orchestra to pay its musicians. Last week, it looked as if the group wouldn’t make payroll and was even possibly moving toward bankruptcy.

This is a sad fall for an orchestra that once had done so much for new music in the US. As late as the summer, it looked as if the orchestra management and board was working on a plan to turn the Louisville Orchestra around.

Orchestra Strike Watch: Detroit Symphony

It’s no surprise that the Detroit Symphony Orchestra today cancelled all concerts up to December 11. The musicians have been on strike for months, and there’s no end in sight; the two sides aren’t even talking.

Here’s how startlingly bad things are financially for the Motor City band, as Jeff Bennett reminds us today in the Wall Street Journal:

The DSO reported a $3.8 million deficit for its 2009 fiscal year compared with a $509,000 loss in fiscal year 2008. Corporate giving, driven largely by Detroit auto makers and parts suppliers, was cut in half, falling to $1.59 million from $3.29 million. The 2010 fiscal year results are due out in December.

That’s almost $4 million dollars on a $31.4 million operating budget, with a primary source of revenue drying up. There’s no way the musicians can be ignorant of the realities here: their city simply can’t support an 85-member orchestra with a base pay even at $82,000 (their base pay was $104, 650).

What the musicians can bargain for–and probably get–is control over how their orchestra is managed. If they feel that the orchestra administration has mismanaged the budget, they should get it in the new contract that musicians be a part of the process. If they don’t think their fundraising is up to snuff, step up and agree to actively participate in raising money, as well as in public relations and marketing.

Clearly the Detroit Symphony musicians are smart and self-starting: while on strike, they’ve mounted and promoted their own concerts, and have articulately argued their case through social media. There’s no reason why they shouldn’t now trade money for power and take hold of their own destinies as the Detroit Symphony Orchestra.

(More on the Detroit Symphony strike)