Trouble at the Columbus Symphony

[Florestan]

I got this from the friends of Columbus symphony group on facebook.

Friends, things are not going well. I beg your attention for a few minutes while I report the "unreported" events surrounding the arts crisis in Columbus. These are my opinions and not the official view of our committee representatives.

I am convinced our orchestra, the Columbus Symphony, which has been built to world class level in the past 56 years, will be decimated by the insidious restructuring "plan" (fire 22 and cut salary 30%) forcefully proposed by the board of trustees and management. Many musicians (including myself) will leave, seeking better work elsewhere. Lives and careers will be ruined. The music will be gone.

Recently, there have been several articles in the local newspaper announcing the city and county's intentions (Thrive in Five) to set aside funds for arts organizations in Columbus. Unfortunately those promised funds have not changed the tenor of the board's official attitude toward the symphony. In fact, I believe they give false hope to those who support the orchestra. Truth is, there has been no indication that the "plan" will be altered or discarded.

Two other articles have appeared in the Dispatch, one announcing next season's programs and another about last week's live recording of our concerts for the Denon record label. While this publicity helps us, the musicians' perspective and comments were shut out from both articles. (in fact, none of our official press releases have been printed since this all began) I believe several quotes from those articles need to be isolated to demonstrate the damage they are causing.

In the article about next season's programs, the first thing Ex. Dir. Tony Beadle is quoted saying is, "The orchestra may go on strike..." There has been no mention of a strike by our representatives. Why would Mr. Beadle open with such an inflammatory and presumptuous phrase in the public press? What are his intentions?

In another article, last week's recording project was deemed a "vanity" event by Mr. Beadle (which FYI was not organized by management, but by principal tuba Jim Akins with support from Gene D'Angelo). To brand as "vain" a recording by a well known international label is absurd. Recordings build and inspire GREATER support for an orchestra. If he considers this beneficial publicity to be excess fat, what are Mr. Beadle's real goals for developing the symphony? Who is directing him?

Columbus is larger and growing faster than Cleveland, Cincinnati or Pittsburgh. Of those cities, Columbus' per capita income is highest. Yet musicians' salaries are already 30-50% lower than the orchestras in those cities. How embarrassing that "the powers that be" in the Capitol of Ohio seem unable to justify an orchestra appropriate to its size and wealth! Columbus deserves a real concert hall and a better vision for its orchestra's growth, not the dismembering of its largest arts institution.

In yesterday's article about county support for the arts there is this quote by Commissioner Marilyn Brown, "We so often talk about Columbus as a sports community. Columbus is arts, too". That is empty rhetoric. Last year I attended a play in Pittsburgh, which has a thriving theater district with numerous productions offered on a Tuesday evening. Columbus barely squeaks for the arts by comparison. Let's face that fact and act upon it, rather than thinking smaller and smaller."

We have 15 organizations with budgets over $500,000," Bill Conner, head of CAPA, said in yesterday's Dispatch. Wow! That's such a stress on a huge city which spends untold hundreds of millions per year on sports. Mr. Connor continues, "This isn't about bailing out the symphony. This is about providing support for our arts and cultural community." If supporting a great orchestra in our city is "bailing it out", then we need to ask Mr. Connor why he's in arts management.

Last season, the orchestra reluctantly gave up three weeks of precious Classical Series to allow management to "repackage" those weeks into something more marketable. Those weeks were feebly renamed and then even more feebly marketed, and now have been canceled. Three weeks of classical music are for all intents and purposes lost, to you and to us. Their only function now, as empty paid weeks, is fodder to argue for cutting our contractual weeks permanently.

There have been viable rumors of plans to shut down the orchestra April 1st (April Fools Day!) Additionally, there are hints that cheaper, lower quality Eastern European orchestras will be brought in to "replace" our lost weeks. I heard one of these groups last year here in Columbus. The quality was far inferior to the CSO, which lives and works here.

Next season's schedule, which usually starts in mid-September, is not slated to begin until October. CAPA and the stagehands who work for them are itching to dump the CSO for more lucrative Broadway shows.

What can you do? A lot. Please, spread the word. Forward this letter to everyone. Write and phone your city and state representatives, specifically Gov. Strickland and Mayor Coleman. Call for the resignation of those who claim to represent and support this orchestra and Columbus by proposing this defeatist plan. Call for the Dispatch to fairly report the musicians' statements.

More information can be found at www.symphonymusicians.com and a new site to be officially launched April 1, www.symphonystrong.com. Add your voice. Let's prove grassroots networking can change things.

Sincerely,
David Thomas,
Principal Clarinet
Your Columbus Symphony

[Florestan]

The thing about shipping in cheaper east european labour has become kind of a running joke in the UK but I didn't know it happened with orchestras and in the US too. It's usually applied to plumbers and builders here.

I'm not sure how that would work but the orchestra's plight sounds like the age-old tale of the arts being attacked by philistines in office.

[Aiantas]

I did an arranging/conducting job a few years ago and I was asked to find out costs and compare orchestras for the recording. I got in touch with Isobel Grifiths who everybody knows as THE orchestral contractor witnessed by innumerable credits at the end of Hollywood productions. She quoted me a price which I will never forget! For five days of recording with an ad hoc band of about sixty players the cost would be 93 million drahmas! (about 180,000 pounds) I then traveled to the Czeck Republic and to Slovakia where I was hosted by orchestras, allowed in to their rehearsals, wined and dined by their managers who bent over backwards to fulfill the requirements for the recording. I settled for the Slovak Philharmonic at 17 million drahmas (50,000 pounds). I had a great time, the band played superbly, and the recording was a huge success. (I had to learn basic German in three weeks though, since they don't speak English!) I made some interesting friends such as the trumpet player Juri Bartoshka. So where is the problem? The only problem is that British orchestras are too expensive and eastern European orchestras are totally underpaid!
With Slovakia now entering the E.U. the chief sound engineer at my sessions told me that they expect a flood of work that will last for about two years and then absolutely nothing, since they will be forced to align prices with the rest of the Union and then geographical consideration take over.
FC

[Florestan]

Yeah, I take your point but the Columbus Symphony are presumably a sort of civic institution. It would be like sacking the LSO and replacing them with Poles. The Poles might be perfectly good but that is not the point. It's not fair on the musicians who rightly expect job security and a living wage.

[Aiantas]

You are right. It is a sad reality that social conditions have forced citizens of countries like Poland and Slovakia to seek employment in the 'West'. However what will happen when, as my friend says, these countries get economically aligned with the west and there are no workers? For highly trained specialists like musicians quality is what counts. Orchestras are not charity organizations but finely balanced high quality businesses. A friend of mine from Bulgaria is by far the best orchestral bass player I know personally and he is in this position now. He plays in the Belgian Radio Orchestra and he worries that when Bulgaria finally become E.U. members in 2014 he will be pressured in to going back. Dimitri is accepted in the musical community there and there is no feeling that he has 'stolen' the position from a Belgian. I too played for years in Greek orchestras and was never made to feel that I was a 'foreign' parasite.
You must see Ken Loach's new film called 'It's a Free World'. These immigrant workers are the people that get the raw deal. If you get passed over for the co-principal bassoon chair by Slobodan Gurievich it will be because he is a better player than you, not because he is cheaper. My best man, Mark Crooks who plays jazz clarinet tells me me always points out jokingly that he's the best player in his price range! Go figure!
FC

[Aiantas]

No musician expects a living wage! We're all poverty stricken beggars! except Placedo Damingo! And as for job security - you'd be better off becoming a snow salesman at the north pole!
FC

[Philidor]

It's up to the various musicians' unions to get themselves organised internationally imo. I remember when Jaap Schroeder was brought in by Christopher Hogwood to lead the Academy of Ancient Music in their complete Mozart symphony project (still the best available). There was a union problem - I forget exactly what - and the whole AAM went on strike until it was resolved.

Quite right too. Musicians shouldn't allow themselves to be pushed around, and the various MUs are hardly revolutionary organisations demanding international socialism and free metronomes!

I hope these Columbus Symphony people get over here if they have the time. Should this site be able to help in even the smallest ways to stuff money into low paid musicians’ pockets, and help them make common cause with nice Poles and Slovaks, I’m all for it.

Cor Anglais Players of the World Unite!

[Aiantas]

I too was in the same position as the writer of the original quote.
The Greek National Radio Symphony Orchestra made cuts in 1995 which were presented to the orchestra like this: Either take a 10% cut in salary or drop 17 players. So I and another 16 players left the orchestra in order to save the salaries of the remaining musicians. This orchestra has had a fourteen year court battle (to get back pay and permanent contracts) which ended last year and there still no sign of the actual contracts that were agreed to in court.
When I was in school my music teacher said "if you do music as a career I can't guarantee you'll be rich but you will have a fair chance at being happy." Now it seems for a lot of musicians even the chance at happiness is no longer part of the deal.
FC

[Philidor]

"We so often talk about Columbus as a sports community. Columbus is arts, too".

That made alarm bells ring. I imagine Columbus stuffed with braying Philistine jocks, lapping at the public purse, while music is thrown a few crumbs. The orchestra should get in there and kick "ass".

[Florestan]

I just noticed this thread again. Somebody remind me to get on to them later and find out what is happening now.