"The strike is o'er, the battle won" (sort of)

After three long months, the Fort Worth Symphony strike has ended. While a protracted "negotiation" resulted in nothing, as one party refused to meet (wonder who that was?), federal mediators managed to accomplish the impossible in two days. It didn't hurt that an anonymous donor came forward with $700,000 to help balance the books.

One has to wonder: where was this person hiding all this time? Why didn't orchestra development personnel identify him/her well in advance of this mess? Oh wait, for all intents and purposes the FWSO development office is non-existent--or at least headless, as there have been five (or is it six?) VPs of Development over the past five years.

From what has been released, here's what we know of the four-year contract:

• A wage freeze in years 1 and 2.
• 2% increase in year 3.
• 2-1/2% increase in year 4.
• Eliminate 7 vacation days.

Bass Hall, Fort Worth: $4100 per rehearsal/performance in rent.

The next performance of the FWSO will be on New Year's Eve and the remainder of the season will go forth as originally scheduled.

So, it's over but can it be called a victory for the players? Not really although this is a far cry from Amy Adkins's "last, best, and final offer" presented before the strike began. Still, the organization can take much from this mess:

• The statement announcing the end of the labor dispute, released last night, stated, This agreement was reached after two days of federal mediation and more than a year of good faith bargaining. Focus on the last three words. There was no good faith bargaining because management--time and time again--refused to meet.

• The FWSO pays something to the tune of $4100 in rent every time they open the doors of Bass Hall, whether for concerts or rehearsals. In Dallas? Meyerson Hall is had for $1 per year! Of course, the DSO helped to raise money to build the place while in Fort Worth, the bulk of the money came from the family of  the current Chair of the FWSO Board. Oh.....wait......

Meyerson Symphony Center, Dallas (damn gorgeous!)
$1 rent for the whole year!

• As earlier stated, the Development Office is in a shambles. Right now, that is the most important task of the Board, CEO Adkins, and all of the stakeholders of the organization. The economy long ago recovered in Fort Worth. Any statements that "the money isn't there" are patently false. This needs to be fixed or heads need to roll.

And the silent Music Director has finally offered very non-committal platitudes:

"I’m thrilled the strike is resolved,” said FWSO Music Director Miguel Harth-Bedoya. “I can’t think of a more fitting way to celebrate the New Year than with the return of the Orchestra and its wonderful musicians. I will be proud to conduct its return concert on New Year’s Eve. I would like to take this opportunity to say to our community: This orchestra belongs to all of us; it raises our quality of life, it impacts our economy directly and indirectly. I’d like to ask the people of Fort Worth to help the orchestra come back not only strong but stronger than ever."

May it be so, at lease until the next "negotiation".

O TEMPORE! O MORES!

.....from Cicero, First Oration against Catiline.

I've been away from the blog for a few weeks and for a few reasons: first, to slog through the vitriol that flowed from the waning days of the Presidential campaigns, and second, to slog through all the vitriol of the aftermath of November 8. I'm not at all happy with the outcome (there, I said it!) but it is what it is, and all Americans need to hope that this great experiment in democracy will survive.

Speaking of survival:

The website of the Fort Worth musicians reported on October 24:

Despite a return to the negotiation table on Saturday, Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra (FWSO) Management has announced today that it is unilaterally canceling concerts through December 31, 2016. This comes after rebuffing Musicians’ repeated offers to collaborate with Management to develop financial solutions to resolve the nearly seven-week-long dispute.

Management is so intent on getting cuts in any way possible; they are now taking it out on the people of Fort Worth directly,” said Musicians Union President Stewart Williams. “In our last meeting, we called upon Symphony President Amy Adkins to stop these cancellations and discuss ways for Musicians and Management to work together, not only to develop new revenue but also to better serve the community. She refused to consider any such options. Instead, she is forcing cuts through cancellations, slashing concert after concert, in reckless disregard for the people the FWSO serves.”

This action, of course, eliminates the highly successful (and lucrative) holiday concerts and assures the un-merriest of Christmases in that city. Oddly enough, an ad for Fort Worth (just the city) popped up on an arts blog I was reading. Their motto--"Cowboys and Culture"--has become only half right. However, the Musicians of the Fort Worth Symphony will offer their own "Fort Worth Family Christmas Concert" on November 27 at the Will Rogers Auditorium, a nearly 3000-seat hall. Conductor Miguel Harth-Bedoya is nowhere in sight.

Will Rogers Auditorium: a bit bland but it used to be adequate for the FWSO.

The orchestra has not led an endowment campaign since 2000; the development office is in shambles (five VPs in five years) and Management insists there is no money to be found, even though there has been a 30% uptick in the economy since the draconian 13.5% salary cuts in 2011. An important note includes the efforts of the Fort Worth Opera, which, in three months this past summer raised over $1 million dollars and doubled its donor base. There is money in Fort Worth--lots of it. BUT, those donors are not going to donate to what appears to be "Management without Music."

I'll say it again: CEO Amy Adkins is out of her element; her unwillingness to even acknowledge the collaborative efforts of the musicians further demonstrates her administrative myopia.

AND, one must not forget the gold-digging Board Chair, Mercedes Bass, who left her first husband because he wasn't rich enough (and 27 years her senior), for her second, the son of one of the wealthiest men in America. Forbes estimated Sid Bass's net worth at $2.1 billion. Before their divorce, she'd done an excellent job of spending Sid's fortune, even donating $25 million to the Met. She has the dough to right the ship (the Dallas News estimated the settlement to be $300 million) Of course, the Fort Worth Symphony is not nearly as high-profile as anything in New York City. (other sources: NY Post and NY Times)

MEANWHILE IN PITTSBURGH:

The same slash and burn philosophy holds true in the city of three rivers, which has morphed itself from a rust belt steel town to one of technology and culture (and great brewpubs!). But, "cancel, cancel, cancel" is management's solution to whatever perceived problem exists (PSI-Pittsburgh Symphony, Incorporated refuses to release the 2015-16 financials). This much is known:

• $33.03 million = Total expenses in 2015, lower than either of the two previous years.

• $21.2 million = 2015 contributions, an increase of some $13 million from 2014.

• $124.1 million** = Endowment net assets, 2015.

**does not include assets held in trust by others, or the “1963 endowment” (which holds approximately $10 million in assets and provides ~$600,000 in operating support to the PSO annually. The PSI does not include the income from the 1963 endowment in its budgeting forecasts, for reasons that have never been explained to the Musicians.)

So it's the same old story: concerts canceled, management refusing to negotiate. On some of the latest news, check out this article from the Post-Gazette. The accompanying photo is, in a word, priceless!

And, of course, Manfred Honeck is nowhere to be seen. He--not Board of Trustees Chair Devin McGranahan nor CEO Melia P. Tourangeau--is the public face of the organization and should be leading negotiations in Pittsburgh instead of flying to his next gig.

FALLING DOMINOS

....Orchestras continue to fall. This story from Pittsburgh:

Pittsburgh Symphony musicians go on strike, concerts canceled

Management of the venerable orchestra predicts that the combined deficit of the organization will reach $20 million (it currently sits at $11 million). The tried and true solution? Balance the books on the backs of the people making the music (aren't they the people that audiences come to hear?), to the tune (pun intended) of a 15% salary decrease. The ham-handed proposal also includes a "hard freeze" of the pension plan (replaced by a 401k for those with less than 30 years of service) and a reduction in the size of the ensemble. This sounds all too familiar.

Negotiations began in February and got nowhere, ending in the work stoppage. Ten days of effort by the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (which succeeded in the Metropolitan Opera near-fiasco a year ago) failed to produce an agreement between the parties.

A story reported by Mark Kanny of Tri Total Media stated, “When new management stepped in at the Pittsburgh Symphony, we undertook a diagnostic situation assessment that caused us to realize that we are facing an imminent financial crisis. That assessment showed that, due to a combination of forces, we would run out of cash and have to close the doors in May/June 2017,” said board chairman Devin McGranahan in a prepared statement. McGranahan and president Melia Tourangeau took office in 2015. 

What combination of forces?

Despite a history dating back to 1898 (except for a 16-year lapse) and world-class conductors such as Fritz Reiner, William Steinberg, Lorin Maazel, and Mariss Jansons, the management is just now figuring out that there may be a financial problem?

Interestingly enough, in one of her first interviews after arriving in Pittsburgh, Tourangeau said, “the priority is to get to a balanced budget. I feel there has been a tremendous amount of cost-cutting that has taken place. In my opinion, we have a revenue problem, not an expense problem.”
Norman Lebrecht, with whom I sometimes agree, offers this assessment, Management’s refusal to compromise clearly is ideological. New PSI Management has decided, against all evidence, that Pittsburgh somehow cannot support a world-class orchestra, and that a “new business model” is needed. This makes no sense. In 2016, the PSO’s Annual Fund hit a record; ticket sales are up; the Pittsburgh economy is dynamic; the Cultural District is thriving. This is no time for the PSI to abandon the idea that Pittsburgh deserves a world-class orchestra.

If ticket revenue is up and the Annual Fund is at record levels, show me the money.

* * * * * * * * * *

No one is budging in Fort Worth, where the orchestra has been on strike through most of September. The Star-Telegram published an incendiary editorial on September 12 and there has been no reporting of the rebuttal by the musicians (summarized here):

We (the FWSO musicians) just ask you to consider the following as you decide for yourself about fiscal responsibility. Is the FWSO Management being fiscally responsible when they:

• Fall short on raising enough money to pay the musicians?
• Use a contingency fund every year to cover operating costs?
• Ignore professional advice to expand the fundraising department?
• Have a new Vice-President of Development every year?
• Don’t have a Strategic Plan past the year 2017?

It is obvious that CEO Amy Adkins is out of her element. Development is the most important issue facing the orchestra. The fact that Development V-Ps last an average of one year says something about management at the top.

Little has been said of Board Chair Mercedes Bass, who also serves as Vice Chairman of the Board of Trustees and the Executive Committee of the Carnegie Hall Corporation as well as Managing Director of the Board of Trustees and Executive Board of the Metropolitan Opera (to which she donated $25 million in 2006. And there's more, including a role with the Aspen Music School (member of the Advisory Board), the Aspen Institute (trustee), and Vice Chairman of the Executive Committee and a member of the Board of Trustees of the American Academy in Rome. After divorcing state department official Francis L. Kellogg in 1988 and marrying Texas billionaire Sid Bass, that marriage ended in 2011, but the settlement left her well off.

Her Fort Worth home
(She also has residences in Colorado and New York City)

The Fort Worth concert hall her in-laws built

She could solve the orchestra's finances with a check out of her pin money account, without cutting into more high-profile gifts to a Lincoln Center opera company.

* * * * * * * * * *

COULD PHILLY FALL (Again?)

Calling management's latest offer "regressive", musicians of the Philadelphia Orchestra are none too happy either. Once part of the venerable "Big Five" of American ensembles (according to budget size), Philly now sits at number 8, and musician salaries continue to fall further behind their colleagues in cities like Boston. 

The contract has already expired and something (or someone) has to move. CEO Allison Vulgamore's track record is not strong (note her previous "service" in Atlanta). The 2011 bankruptcy still looms large, especially for an organization that maintained a $140 million endowment, owned (and still owns) the Academy of Music, and had no debts! Huh?

The Philadelphia Academy of Music (1857)
And nothing wrong with the acoustics
http://www.totaltheater.com/?q=node/467

The musicians note in their September newsletter:

Although the filing in April 2011 was opposed by the musicians, the public was told that it was a necessary step and that when the Orchestra emerged from bankruptcy, things would be much better.

When the court approved the bankruptcy, the Association made wholesale changes to our pension plan. The Plan was frozen and its administration was transferred to the Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation, a U. S. government entity. Some musicians may receive lower pensions than they would have earned under the frozen Plan. The retirement benefits which were substituted for the Plan do not guarantee the benefit level specified in the Plan. In addition, the orchestra musicians, who had voluntarily taken a wage freeze the year before, and who had donated a significant amount of money to the Association, saw their salaries reduced by more than 14 percent. The size of the orchestra was also reduced, from 106 full-time positions to 95.

The Association, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer's Peter Dobrin, spent “almost $10 million in professional fees and expenses” on the bankruptcy, and paid settlements of $1.75 million to the American Federation of Musicians Pension Plan, and $1.25 million to the Philly Pops in the process.

More than five years later, Musicians hoped that the Association would view the bankruptcy as a temporary means to regroup and ultimately restore the kind of budget that is necessary to fund a major symphony orchestra, rather than as a way to downgrade the musicians' contract permanently. More than five years later, we are still waiting.

* * * * * * * * * *

Contract talks at the Pacific Symphony (budget $20 million) have halted. Musicians’ Bargaining Committee Chairperson Adam Neeley states, “The Pacific Symphony is the only professional orchestra in the United States with any significant annual budget that does not provide a weekly wage or annual guarantee of wages to its musicians.” Neeley states further, “Musicians have no predictability of their income from week to week, month to month or year to year.”

* * * * * * * * * *

Who is next?

THE BAD, THE WORST, AND THE UGLIEST

Recently I chronicled happenings in three American orchestras, noting that life was good in San Diego (with the best weather in the U.S., it would be hard to beat), rumblings were coming out of Pittsburgh, and the situation in Fort Worth? It hasn't gotten any better. Here's an update:

In Pittsburgh:

Life for symphony musicians in the City of Three Rivers (and big changes from the days of Big Steel) hasn't improved. The orchestra is stilled mired in million dollar + deficits and the orchestra's contract expired a week ago. Since then, things have seemed eerily quiet. Judging by recent history in the overall business (think Atlanta, Minnesota), this is definitely not a good sign.

Pittsburgh, where the Pirates are mired in 3rd place and the orchestra?
It is a gorgeous view, however.

In Philadelphia (what? again?)

The once-great ensemble (remember Stokowski and Ormandy) limped out of its 2011 bankruptcy proceedings with hope for the future. That hasn't happened. Peter Dobrin reports in the Inquirer, Musicians and management of the Philadelphia Orchestra Friday agreed to continue talking for an unspecified period of time beyond the end of the current labor deal, which had been set to expire at 12:01 a.m. Sept 12.

Management had offered no raise for two years and a mere one percent in each of the following three. As of now, no further negotiating sessions are scheduled, but the two sides seem amenable to a "play and talk" agreement for the immediate future. Personally, I trace the orchestra's financial problems to at least three areas:

Philadelphia's Academy of Music

• The orchestra formerly performed in the historic Academy of Music. Frowned on for less than favorable acoustics (although Stokowski and Ormandy seemed to make them work), the flashy, new Kimmel Center was built down the street. It's important to note that the orchestra, instead of being the landlord, is now a tenant. That cannot be financially prudent in difficult times.

• Management. The current CEO is Alison Vulgamore, she who left the Atlanta Symphony in shambles before skipping town. How does this continue to happen? Beats me.

• The fall-out from the Eschenbach years. The orchestra took a great slide in overall quality during the music directorship of Christoph Eschenbach. The infusion of exciting conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin hasn't been enough to reverse the trend and bring back the faithful.

Fort Worth: On Strike

The musicians called management's bluff of its "last, best offer" of continued cuts and went against the recommendation of its union and went on strike at 12:30 PM Thursday. While the players seemed willing to play and talk, management (that is, out-of-her-element CEO Amy Adkins) went ahead and canceled opening-weekend concerts.

Management is also attempting a war of words in the press: The orchestra employs 65 full-time musicians with an average salary of $62,000 and health benefits. The proposed contract that musicians rejected included a significant pay cut in the first year and then small, incremental pay raises in the following three years. By the fourth year, the pay increases would have resulted in principal players being paid more than $70,000 a year. (From the Post-Telegram)

Unfortunately, this isn't true. Base salary under a new agreement would be $54K. Mentioning principal player's salaries (which are normally negotiated separately) is an unprofessional way of ingratiating the public. We pay $70K a year! Isn't that a lot of money? One has to wonder what the CEO (the former Development Director) is paid some $167K, according to the organization's most recent IRS 990 form (2014).

The basic problem is a simple one. Fort Worth has burned through at least five development VPs since Adkins (herself in that role for 11 years) in the past six years. Leadership is needed in this all-important area; the buck does stop at the top.

Interestingly enough, the Musicians of the Fort Worth Symphony (under that title) are performing next weekend with the local ballet. They have contracted themselves under the terms of the former contract with the orchestra. That little bit of goodwill should go a very long way.

Coming soon: the 2016-17 Quad City Wind Ensemble Season

CORRECTION: The local newspaper is the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

Read more here: http://www.star-telegram.com/entertainment/arts-culture/article100625872.html#storylink=c

Like lemmings over the cliff

Yes, I realize that the film many of us watched in elementary school has been disproven, some of the contents of today's inbox reminded me of days lost past. Today's email from HigherEdJobs contained no fewer than four openings from the University of Hartford: one in woodwinds, two in brass (trumpet and trombone) and one in "the business". It's rather hard to imagine that this is a coincidence. Some of the musicians of the community are jumping ship before it goes down. Yes, the Hartford Symphony CBA debacle was a disaster of titanic proportions.

In Fort Worth, it's business as usual, at least until July 31. The Dallas Morning News had reported on Friday that Fort Worth Symphony, musicians reach ‘temporary’ one-year agreement. Of course it must be noted that the musicians have been playing without a new agreement since July 31, 2015, a CBA that was negotiated three years before that.

FWSO CEO Amy Adkins continues to note the projection for the current fiscal year, including a $650K deficit. Still no report on where that's coming from. For what it's worth, Music Director Miguel Harth-Bedoya clears nearly $400K in salary and benefits.

One thing is obvious. The FWSO Association backed down from their threat of a concessionary contract with an 8% cut in pay. To imply that this damages management's credibility would be an understatement.

There's also trouble in a river city, Trouble that starts with "T", that rhymes with "G", that stands for.... More on this one later.

Future posts also include "Walking the walk" with new music and more.  Stay tuned.

Management backs down (for now anyway) in FW

The latest reports from Fort Worth indicate that management will not be implementing its "concessionary" contract, a move originally intended to take place on Monday the 25th. This has been gleaned from yesterday's Star-Telegram, which is now mysteriously nearly hidden behind a paywall. The news has not been confirmed by any other sources.

Neither side has offered any definitive comment on the issue. It seems more than a bit strange that CEO Amy Adkins has remained mum.

I suppose that odder things have happened.

Jaap van Zweden
He must use Gergiev's razor...

In other Texas news, Dallas Symphony Conductor Jaap van Zweden has been appointed the next Music Director of the New York Philharmonic. He is best known (or loathed) for his meticulous and demanding rehearsal style. While this seems an "out of left field" choice, may van Zweden is just what the NYPO needs.

If you can't "do....." A (partial) tale of the mess in FW

Seriously, how did the Fort Worth Symphony get to this point? Players are up in arms about another pay cut. Management is insistent that it needs to happen in order to keep the organization solvent (no talk of a lock out, but the player's union has authorized a strike--if it comes to that.)

Detroit in 2010, could be anywhere today...

2010 wasn't really a great year for symphony orchestras in the U.S. The Cleveland Orchestra stuck early that year when negotiations broke down. In the fall, the Detroit Symphony was just starting what would become a near-crippling walk out. And the autumn began in silence as the musicians of the Fort Worth Symphony imposed, according to Front Row D magazine, a warning to orchestra management that the musicians were united in their opposition to cuts proposed during their contract renewal talks.

In November, musicians gave in to a very large pay cut of nearly 14%. At that time, FWSOA President Ann Koonsman (who would serve less than one year more) said, With this new agreement, the musicians are accepting a decrease in pay. None of us are pleased about that, and I ask the community to step forward and to increase their support of the Orchestra. The players were led to believe that management would step up its development efforts in order to restore what they had given away. Unfortunately....

Ann Koonsman, gotta love the pose....

In 2010, the head of development (that's the person directly in charge of raising donor dollars) was Amy Adkins. She was rewarded for her bang up job with a promotion--to the President's position! Yes, you read that correctly: the person who didn't raise enough money to balance the budget would become the head of the whole organization. In fact, she was the only person considered for the job, having been basically crowned by the outgoing CEO, Ms. Koonsman. Let's not even get into someone hiring their replacement...

One has to wonder a bit about Ms. Adkins, of whom it was said (again in Front Row, January 28, 2011), The Board of Directors is thrilled to announce Amy’s appointment as president and CEO. Her longtime dedication to the Orchestra, her love of music, and her ability to form relationships with key supporters makes her the perfect fit. Amy’s knowledge of orchestral management combined with her superb fundraising talents will ensure that the Orchestra has a bright future.

Knowledge of orchestral management? Where did that come from? Here's the backstory, as chronicled by Ms. Adkins herself (in a Front Row story from August):

She started college as a piano performance major at Texas Tech University, where she met her future husband, Alton Adkins. But while on a trip to visit a friend in New York City when she was 20 years old, Adkins took a little personal tour of the famed Juilliard School of Music that changed the course of her career.

"I remember hearing the level of playing coming out of those Juilliard rooms," she recalls. "I realized that I just wasn't at that level and that a performance career was not going to be for me." So let's get this right: is this an example of "if you can't do..."

And just like that, Adkins shifted her major from performance to music education. With her freshly minted education and music certification degree in hand, she began to teach music and choir in the Duncanville school district. After two years of teaching, Adkins was emotionally and physically spent. But she couldn't handle teaching after two whole years? (Sorry, I've been in the profession for 30. Every day is a joy.)

Enter Fort Worth and the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra, which, in the summer of 1993, engaged Adkins' husband as a French horn player. Alton Adkins has been with the orchestra ever since.

By 1995, Adkins had joined the orchestra as its education coordinator. Eventually, Adkins would take on the more influential position of development director, where she thrived. Thrived so well that the players took a huge pay cut right before she assumed control.

DFW International, one of the world's busiest

Granted, in 2010 the nation was coming out of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.  That said, the orchestra had a successful endowment campaign completed in 2008. Then there's Rick Perry's "Texas Miracle." Godsend or not, Texas was not hit as hard by the recession as the rest of the country. The price of a barrel of crude reached its lowest point in 2009, when it was $53.48. A year later, that same price had risen to over $71. The entire state was in a growth pattern which has yet to abate.

Since 2000, Fort Worth has been the fastest growing city in the U.S. The nation's 16th largest city, it is part of the number one tourist destination in Texas. Some 6.5 million people annually visit the Dallas-Fort Worth area. WalletHub has called it the number 1 city for finding a job. Visit the FW Chamber of Commerce website; Fort Worth, by all measures, is a happening place....

Fort Worth skyline: not just a cow town anymore...

By all measures except what it pays its orchestra. It's obvious that the blame must rest with management. They were given a huge concession in 2010. Five years later (this mess has been going on since last summer) management has demanded (there has never been any "asking") for more.

The buck stops at the top.

An update from Fort Worth

It seems as though, no sooner than I'd written about the Fort Worth crisis, there was more news in the air. The management determined that it would begin Monday (tomorrow) with concessionary terms, which cut musicians’ pay more than 8 percent and save the symphony $371,000 a year, this according to Andrea Ahles of the Star Telegram.

Andrea Ahles

Musicians were apparently ready for this action and met before Friday evening's performance to reject the plan.  KERA News reported “In 2010, we accepted a 13.5% pay cut, saving the symphony over $2.3 million to date,” the musicians’ union says in a statement. “Where did that money go? In the meantime, Orchestra management has had five years to come up with a plan for growth, but they have not. Instead, they have been depleting the Symphony’s contingency funds. Now, once again, we are being told to pay for a pattern of shortsighted management, cutting our salaries down to 2003 levels....

It also needs to be noted that the FWSO completed its Millennium Campaign in 2008, raising some $28 million for the orchestra's endowment. Of course, it took eight years to get there rather slow going when compared to other non-profit entities. So, one could ask, "Where's the money?" Yes, it probably took a big hit along with the recession. But, as economists will tell us, the country has largely recovered. What's wrong with Fort Worth? All that CEO Adkins has to offer is excuses:

Adkins next to Lan Lang at a 2015 Gala
Um, if they can afford  to bring him in......

“No matter what we are doing to improve matters, the setbacks have erased everything we’ve done and then some,” Adkins said.

This year, she said, the deficit will grow to $650,000, partly because of increased rental costs at Bass Hall. (Bass Hall rental fees also continued to increase. Since 2010, the symphony’s rent has risen more than 23 percent, from $260,000 to this year’s expected payment of $319,000.) It seems to me that some renegotiation of that contract is in order.

• 
  Read more here: http://www.star-telegram.com/entertainment/arts-culture/article55995395.html#storylink=c

It must be noted that Bass Hall brags on its own website:

The mission of the Nancy Lee and Perry R. Bass Performance Hall is to serve as a permanent home to major performing arts organizations of Fort Worth and as a premiere venue for other attractions so as to enhance the range, quality, and accessibility of cultural fare available to the public; to promulgate arts education; and to contribute to the cultural life of Fort Worth, Tarrant County, and the region.

Bass Performance Hall is the crown jewel of a city which boasts the nation's third largest cultural district. It is also an important symbol of one of the most successful downtown revitalization efforts in the country.

Built entirely with private funds, Bass Performance Hall is permanent home to the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra, Texas Ballet Theater, Fort Worth Opera, and the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition and Cliburn Concerts. Each resident company operates independently from Performing Arts Fort Worth and manages its own programming schedule at Bass Hall.

• “We often had to beg and plead for money at the end of every year to balance the budget, and many of those year-end ‘angels’ are either gone or not able to do what they once did,” Adkins said.

Something just plain doesn't add up....like this:

• “The bottom line is we have made up a lot of the ground we lost in 2008 and 2009, but our revenue still remains less than it was prior to the recession,” Adkins said.

Bad-faith bargaining has been happening across the country (note the culmination of the Hartford crisis. It continues to occur in places as wide-ranging as Colorado and Michigan (as if Flint's water woes weren't enough to deal with).

But tomorrow, let's talk about Amy Adkins and how she is not at all qualified to be the Chief Executive of the FWSO.

Read more here: http://www.star-telegram.com/entertainment/arts-culture/article55995395.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.star-telegram.com/entertainment/arts-culture/article55995395.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.star-telegram.com/entertainment/arts-culture/article55995395.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.star-telegram.com/entertainment/arts-culture/article55995395.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.star-telegram.com/entertainment/arts-culture/article55995395.html#storylink=cpy

Meanwhile in Fort Worth

I've had to step back from chronicling the situation in Hartford. It's been exhausting. That doesn't mean that I am finished banging the drum for the HSO. One has to only hope that the powers-that-be come to their senses and realize that the "alliance" between the HSO and BPAC benefits only the latter. More will be seen about the true picture when the 2014 990s are released.

The Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra, founded in 1912, has a long and distinguished history. Disbanded in 1917 due to the First World War, it was reconstituted in 1925 and only four years later, Lela Rogers (Ginger's mom!) became Executive Director. The orchestra has played at Carnegie Hall (as both the Fort Worth Chamber Orchestra and in 2008 as the FWSO), toured China, Mexico, and Spain. Ann Koonsman served 31 years as Executive Director starting in 1980. It was in the change of leadership that the house began to crumble.

The FWSO, "with their assured, rich-hued and impassioned account
of Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony."
NY Times, January 2008

A few weeks ago, I wrote of the problems within the organization. As a reminder, the players agreed to a 13.5% pay cut to help pull the orchestra out from the nation's recession. The next time contractual negotiations began--the contract expired in July--management comes forward with an "offer" of an 8.7% cut, eliminating a 3.5% give-back in 2012 and then some.

The orchestra is allegedly running deficits between $200 and $400K. The major sticking point for me is that the former development officer who should have been beating the bushes raising funds to get the orchestra out of the red three years ago (Amy Adkins is her name) was promoted to the Executive Director's position in 2011.

Amy Adkins
I'm trying to figure out the pose...

DFW.com wrote of Adkins' ascendence to the head job in an August 2011 article, Amy Adkins takes fearlessness to new heights as leader of the FWSO. In it, Adkins put a bright face on an orchestra that had just gone through a bitter negotiation process, "I know this is a big job, and I would be lying to say I'm not just a bit intimidated, but I also hasten to say I'm not a fearful kind of person," says Adkins, whose orchestra résumé includes time as its education coordinator and, most recently, development director. "Honestly, becoming president was not something I first aspired to, but I just adore this organization and I feel so passionately about the people that work for it that I have become compelled to do this. It's become my calling."

"Clearly, establishing financial stability will be our No. 1 short-term goal," Adkins says. "We've got to increase our earned income by selling more tickets." Um, time and time again, it's been proven that there is little income potential from ticket revenues.

Adkins, who is also mom to sons Jacob, 14, and Benjamin, 10, says she feels like she is in fighting trim to take on the gargantuan role of orchestra president, thanks to a relatively recent obsessive pursuit of exercise.

"I've become a bit of a nut about it," she admits.

Her regimen involves going to the Larry North gym four times a week, often working with a personal trainer. And what's on the iPod of the president of the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra? Sting, Coldplay, U2, Black Eyed Peas, Adele and an Irish band called the Script.

Of her exercise regimen, she says, "Cardio is never my favorite, but I've been introduced to kickboxing, and that's quite an experience. I never really thought of exercise as being so empowering, but it does give me so much more energy."

That energy -- and sense of empowerment -- may serve Adkins well as she navigates the job. Obviously it hasn't helped very much as the orchestra (despite a $28 million increase in its endowment at the end of Koonsman's tenure) may be going from bad to worse. But look on the bright side. The current concessions are only half what management took away in 2010!
But I digress--a lot.

Bill Clay, Principal Bass

Only a week ago KERA News reported, Five years ago, Fort Worth Symphony players agreed to slash their salaries in tough financial times. Now, with new contract talks, they want those cuts restored. Bill Clay is the principal bass player with the Fort Worth Symphony and speaks for the players. “Our proposal has come down by over $1.25 million and management on the other hand hasn’t moved from their financial proposal since October,” Clay says. Two days ago, that same station offered this: The Fort Worth Symphony says it has issued its final offer and musicians will vote on it this week, but it’s not clear if they’ll accept it.

So it's yet another example of management taking the hard line and expecting the players (um...they're the ones making the music and racking up glorious reviews) to acquiesce. Just like the lockouts in Atlanta and Minnesota. Oh wait, neither of those turned out the way management intended. Chief executives were fired and the community won. But, but, but....it worked in Hartford after all!

The musicians of the FWSO are taking the issue into their own hands. The Fort Worth Star-Telegram noted that Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra musicians voted on Tuesday to authorize a strike after the symphony’s management said it planned to implement a “concessionary contract” this month. “The musicians of the Fort Worth Symphony met [Tuesday] afternoon for a strike authorization vote, and the vote was passed virtually unanimously,” said Scott Jessup, spokesman for the musicians union.
The vote does not call a strike but authorizes the union’s negotiating committee to do so.

FWSO pickets outside Bass Hall

This was brought about by the symphony's decision to implement a new contract on Monday with financial concessions including an 8.4 percent cut in total wages. “The difference with this latest offer is that the Symphony has stated that they will not bargain with us anymore by calling this their ‘last, best, and final,’ offer,” the union said in a statement. “Management says they will implement this offer on January 25, forcing us to work under the conditions they impose.”

Management has shot back with an immediate response, again blaming the economy. Adkins maintains that the symphony has comprehensive fundraising plans that are ongoing and targeted. And just because the city’s economy is growing, she said, that doesn’t necessarily mean more symphony supporters. Really? “We often had to beg and plead for money at the end of every year to balance the budget, and many of those year-end ‘angels’ are either gone or not able to do what they once did,” Adkins said.

American Federation of Musicians Local 72-147 Secretary-Treasurer Stewart Williams argues that symphony management does not have a sustainable financial plan and that cuts should not be necessary when the economy in Fort Worth is doing well. “The cuts didn’t fix the problem five years ago, and they’re not going to fix it now."  Management should have put a plan into place five years ago to stabilize its operations, he said.

And Music Director Miguel Harth-Bedoya? As usual, mum's the word...

Read more here: http://www.star-telegram.com/entertainment/arts-culture/article55995395.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.star-telegram.com/entertainment/arts-culture/article55995395.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.star-telegram.com/entertainment/arts-culture/article55995395.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.star-telegram.com/entertainment/arts-culture/article55995395.html#storylink=cpy

Only a couple of things can occur once one side or the other decides that it's no longer willing to sit at the table, and they don't amount to moving forward. Either management imposes a lockout (and again I have to note how well that hasn't worked) or, in fewer cases, the players strike. Such actions have threatened organizations such as the Chicago Symphony (very briefly) and the venerable Metropolitan Opera. In the latter, matters did get precariously close to the breaking point but federal mediation and the efforts of Peter Gelb (I can't believe I'm praising the guy) saved the day.

While the music hasn't died in the FWSO, it is only a matter of time. Again, there are no winners, only losers: the musicians and the community. Then there is any community pride and goodwill that might have been engendered since 1912.

It's the "vision thing" or, in this case, the lack of it.

Read more here: http://www.star-telegram.com/entertainment/arts-culture/article55570095.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.star-telegram.com/entertainment/arts-culture/article55570095.html#storylink=cpy