A (pretty) good news summer: Contracts, Musical chairs.....

As opposed to the recent past (that included a rash of contract disputes), this spring/summer has generated more than a few surprises (both good and not so good):

Grand Rapids Symphony, DeVos Hall

     The Grand Rapids (MI) Symphony and its players ratified a five-year agreement in April. Local media reports that the agreement that will carry the Grand Rapids Symphony through its 90th anniversary season in 2019-20 maintains the present 40-week performance season, preserves the current complement of musicians, and makes no changes to the orchestra's health insurance. The contract negotiations took eleven (11) months to ratify the previous agreement which had expired August 31, 2015.

Raymond Harvey, MD of the Kalamazoo Symphony

     Meanwhile, down Highway 131 from Grand Rapids, members of the Kalamazoo Symphony filed an unfair labor practice charge against the orchestra with the National Labor Relations Board. KSO management is attempting to save a few dollars by doubling up rehearsals (similar to sports team's "two a days"). Al Jones writes, At the crux of the union's complaint are plans by orchestra management to schedule two rehearsal sessions on each of the two days preceding the shows in the KSO's symphonic concert series, rather than have one session per day for four days preceding a show. There may also be a rehearsal on the same day as a show.
     Management obviously doesn't know how these things work. Peter Gistelinck, CEO, said it creates more access and easier access for guest soloists and guest conductors to perform. They can visit Kalamazoo for two to three days, rather than four or five. "If you really want to bring in high level stars, they can't spend four to five days in the community," he said. 
     As one who knows the business, even middle-tier soloists are rarely in town for more than three days. Management also doesn't even try to accommodate schedules of musicians who don't work full-time at it (which would be practically all of them), or the serious possibility of injury from players overextending themselves. Keep an eye on this one.

   
     Better news comes from Kansas City as well. The orchestra reached a new agreement (in eight meeting with no attorneys) for four years that includes a 20%(!!) wage hike and a better benefit package. It helps that management and players are united in a common goal to halt the flow of fine players from KC to greener (and more lucrative) pastures. It also doesn't hurt to have an Executive Director, Frank Byrne, who trained as a professional musician. Honestly I don’t see how one could do my job without having that connection and that commitment to music,” Byrne said. “So when we talk about any number of issues, the musicians know that I am aware of what it takes to perform on a professional level, the sacrifices, the commitment, the pressure, everything that goes with it, and that they have someone who is respectful of the work that they do. That has been very beneficial in the many conversations that we’ve had.

ON THE CONDUCTING FRONT

The 5-million-dollar man

The highest-paid conductor in the U.S. is not Christoph Eschenbach! Rather, it's Jaap van Zweden (MD designate with the New York Phil), Conductor of the Dallas Symphony. Apparently, he was given a signing bonus of over $3 million, on top of a salary increase of 19% (over 280K) over the previous year. Total compensation: $5,110,538. This is obscene and uncalled-for.




Rounding out the top ten:

2. Riccardo Muti, Chicago Symphony: $2,309,837
3. Christoph Eshenbach, National Symphony: $2,274,151
4. Michael Tilson-Thomas, San Francisco Symphony: $2,105,920
5. Alan Gilbert, New York Philharmonic: $1,751,570
6. Gustavo Dudamel, Los Angeles Philharmonic: $1,661,493
7. David Robertson, St. Louis Symphony: $1,043,313
8. Franz Welser-Most, Cleveland Orchestra: $977,496
9. Marin Alsop, Baltimore Symphony: $914,747
10. Leonard Slatkin, Detroit Symphony: $800,957

Yannick: adored in Philly

Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Music Director of the Philadelphia Orchestra, has been named the new conductor (or whatever the title is) at the Metropolitan Opera. At 41, he has to fill the big shoes left by James Levine. Lest one is worried about his apparent youth, Levine was 32 when he began his 40-year run. Although his Philadelphia contract has been extended through 2026, perhaps Yannick wants a safety net. As arts critic Peter Dobrin reports, the cloud of Philadelphia's 2011 bankruptcy hasn't necessarily cleared. Turns out they're ignoring the younger donor base....Go figure.

One has to wonder what kind of contract Jaap will command in New York.

Edo de Waart finishes his tenure as Music Director of the Milwaukee Symphony at the close of the 2016-17 season. Leonard Slatkin of Detroit departs at the same time.

Gianandrea Noseda assumes the podium of the National Symphony in 2017-18.

A NEW 'TOP FIVE"

For years the prestige of various American orchestras was based upon their budgets; the "top five" included New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, Boston, and Cleveland. How things have changed. Here's the new list.

"The Dude" and his band are easily #1.
Frankly, it's all in the hair.

1 Los Angeles Philharmonic: $117,813,629. That's a lot of cash. Of course, the LA Phil makes a slew of it at their high-powered summer venue in the Hollywood Bowl.

2 Boston Symphony: $88,543,401

3 Chicago Symphony: $80,482,607

4 San Francisco Symphony: $74,566,128

5 New York Philharmonic: $73,256,773

Cleveland is sixth at $51,303,220 and Philadephia seventh with $45,366,875.

Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/entertainment/music-news-reviews/classical-music-dance/article81373582.html#storylink=cpy

Trouble in a River City

Trouble that starts with "T," that rhymes with G.....

Growing up in Central Michigan and the backyard of Michigan State University, I was fortunate enough to be near the seat of government as well as the cultural amenities of both the town and the gown. Lansing had what was, I suppose, a decent orchestra (which I sang with on more than one occasion). It was at the university that I would encounter life-altering musical events, including my very first opera (Carmen) as well as live performances of both the Cleveland and Philadelphia Orchestras, both on tour in May 1976. Detroit (a much more attractive place despite the riots that plagued that city a decade before) wasn't that far away; its summer home--Meadowbook--on the Oakland University campus--was still active. It's concert hall at the time, Ford Auditorium, was horrible inside and out. But that organization has come full circle, returning to its original home at Orchestra Hall in 1989.

My travels west resulted mostly in visits to "the Lake" (Michigan, that is). The delights of lakeside communities of Holland and Grand Haven were too numerous to mention and the water finally becomes swimmable in the later summer. Every trip to the lake meant passing by Grand Rapids, and there rarely seemed a reason to stop.

For the longest time, GR (as the locals call it) was known as the "Furniture City". Since an 1876 international exhibition in Philadelphia, its renown as a center for fine furniture was cemented. Although those days aren't completely gone, the products manufactured in GR are mostly office products, as opposed to the wooden furniture for which the city gained its fame. In the 70s and 80s, GR always seemed to me to be a sleepy little town, with few reasons to visit, outside of a fabulous sheet music store (now a part of the J.W. Pepper chain) and a pizza joint replete with a working "Mighty Wurlitzer" (now long gone). That, to me, was Grand Rapids. Never did I venture downtown--there was no reason to, and as long as the expressway went around the city, little opportunity either.

Somewhere around 1980, as I was nearing completion of my own degree studies and preparing (unknown to me at the time) a move west, GR began to change. The Amway Corporation, began to invest in the area, renovating the historic Pantlind Hotel. The Gerald R. Ford Museum was completed in 1981 in honor of GR's favorite son and 38th President. The 1980s also brought DeVos Performance Hall, a "real home" for the local orchestra, the Grand Rapids Symphony, an ensemble that, in my youth seemed as sleepy as the town.

DeVos Performance Hall, Grand Rapids

(N.B. The Frederick Meijer Gardens, north of the city, are incredibly cool, especially the sculptures scattered throughout.)

Leonardo's horse at the Meijer Gardens

The GR Symphony was founded as a community orchestra in 1930. A number of renowned conductors have led the ensemble over the years, including Nicolai Malko (1942-1946), Desire Defauw (1954-1958), Semyon Bychkov (1980-1985), and Catherine Comet (1985-1998). Currently, the orchestra is engaged in a massive search to replace outgoing Music Director David Lockington; in fact, almost all of the press generated by the orchestra has concerned the guest conductors, with little offerings discussing some very important behind-the-scene issues.

GRS Music Director Laureate David Lockington, 1999-2015

Like many orchestras its size, the rise and fall of the organization's fortune have been in lockstep with the manufacturing base that is vital to the Wolverine state's economy. The 80s were a difficult time for the entire state and, of course, the crisis of 2008-09 adversely affected arts organizations, some of which have still to come to grips with the slash and burn tactics of executives and boards of directors. A two-year agreement was ratified in 2009, cutting musicians salaries 9 to 14 percent and reduced the orchestra's season from 42 to 40 weeks among other cost-cutting measures. The current four-year contract, reached in 2011, resulted in a one-year pay freeze, with approximately seven percent increases over the subsequent three seasons. Thus, all the musicians are will left behind what they were earning pre-2009.

And that's where things have stood since the contract expiration (August 31, 2015). Since that time a lone article has appeared even mentioning the issue. The Kent-Ionia Central Labor Council of the AFL-CIO did report in September that While we cannot reveal specific details from our negotiation sessions, we can say that the Musicians seek for the GRS to grow along with the city that currently is experiencing a boom like never before, while the management seems to want to turn back the clock, shrinking the number of full-time players, and decreasing pay and benefits to its Musicians. 

Drew McManus, in Adaptistration, commented in September that this (Grand Rapids Symphony) is one of the more intriguing scenarios in that the orchestra’s musicians have been expanding long running, self-produced community engagement efforts in order to strengthen their potential support base if the orchestra enters a work stoppage. One recent effort included a free, hour long concert with the theme “paying tribute to how symphony musicians in Grand Rapids have served the community since 1930.” Sources close to negotiations indicate that the employer has been pushing hard for large cuts in the form of a truncated season that would amount to a 15 percent reduction in musician annual salary.

The newsletter of ICSOM, the International Conference of Symphony and Opera Musicians, has been equally lacking in details about the on-going negotiations.

Something has to give. Like Fort Worth, Grand Rapids is experiencing an ever-expanding economy. But, without a leader at the helm, giving is going to take awhile to return as stakeholders examine the "new guy" (for the record, there is only one woman in the cadre of finalists). It's all about wait-and-see for musicians and audiences alike.