One person making a difference

In comparing the contractual problems of the Ft. Worth Symphony and those past in Atlanta and Minneapolis (the Minnesota Orchestra), there are striking similarities: entrenched management and board-controlled media come to mind. Of course, both Atlanta and Minnesota ended in ugly and extended lockouts. However, in both cases there was a major difference.

Donald Runnicles and Robert Spano
(photo Jeff Roffman)

In Atlanta, Music Director Robert Spano AND Principal Guest Conductor Donald Runnicles both spoke out on the side of the players. Their joint letter to the ASO management said, in part, “We ask the board and management to acknowledge the sacrifice the musicians have already made, and to examine other ways and areas to establish sustainability.” Spano went one step further in an interview with the Washington Post, "This is not a normal labor dispute. “This is a question of whether Atlanta wishes to preserve its legacy of having a great orchestra or having a minor league orchestra. It’s not a question of payroll or health care or anything else. It’s a question of: Will Atlanta remain an important, major league orchestra?"

Osmo Vanska

Finnish conductor Osmo Vanska, Music Director of the Minnesota Orchestra, went one step further: he resigned after that orchestra's lockout had lasted a year (it would eventually eat up 16 months). During that time, he came back to lead "The Musicians of the Minnesota Orchestra" in three sold-out concerts (only two were originally scheduled). When the dust had finally settled, the New York Times reported:

He (Vanska) served an ultimatum, threatening that if the lockout were not lifted in time for the current season, he would resign; as good as his word, he did. He conducted the locked-out players in concerts that they themselves organized. And he engaged in what some have called slash-and-burn tactics, dropping little verbal bombshells aimed especially at the president, Mr. Henson, essentially demanding his resignation.

Even now, he says that he and Mr. Henson “are not going to work together” in the four months that remain of Mr. Henson’s tenure. Mr. Henson said, “I will continue to collaborate with colleagues in whatever way best serves the organization in the months ahead.”

Does Mr. Vanska regret any of those tactics?

“I felt then, and the feeling is still strong,” he said, “that the orchestra needed me and I needed the orchestra.”

He finds positive aspects in the current situation: “a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.” More people know about the orchestra than ever did before, he said, and the players have learned some of what they can accomplish through their own resources.

“It will take time to rebuild,” Mr. Vanska said, “but it might be a surprisingly short time.”

“Maybe this had to happen to give us the idea that we must find something,” he added, “some way to work together.”

Note: Vanska returned to the helm and recently led the orchestra in a highly-touted European tour.

This is leadership, in both cases from the public face of the organization. Stakeholders outside the organization care little about Boards and budgets; they care about the music and the people making it.

As for Fort Worth Music Director Miguel Harth-Bedoya? Silence...