Wednesday (9/12) on Huffington Post, Lucas Kavner writes, “This hasn’t been a good month for concert musicians. As orchestras across the country continue to tighten their belts, players are being asked to make do with less. And if agreements aren’t reached soon, mounting tensions could leave a handful of America’s top orchestras without any actual players on their stages in the coming season. Talks have completely stalled at the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, where musicians are currently locked out of their home at the Woodruff Arts Center. Facing a potential $20 million deficit, the ASO proposed more than $5 million in cuts to musicians’ salaries over two years. … A similar lockout is taking place in Indiana, where the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra is shutting out musicians after weeks of failed negotiations. … Jesse Rosen, the President of the League of American Orchestras, an organization that works to benefit the musicians and the boards and administrations alike, said we should remember that the entire nonprofit arts sector is still reeling from the effects of the recession, and major orchestras are no exception. ‘This is still a period of very substantial financial economic stress in the system,’ he said. … These stresses are natural, he said, considering how the economy has changed, and perhaps they will force orchestras to further innovate and question the ways they’ve done business in the past.”
Posted September 13, 2012
