Tuesday (11/27) on the Minneapolis Star-Tribune blog Artcetera, Kristin Tillotsin reports, “The locked-out musicians of the Minnesota Orchestra issued a unanimous vote of no confidence in the organization’s president and CEO, Michael Henson, on Tuesday. The musicians’ statement said that his removal ‘is key to resolving the current lockout.’ … Said Tim Zavadil, who heads the musicians’ negotiating committee, ‘the lack of partnership between Henson and the musicians since his arrival has been dysfunctional and adversarial due to his management style and lack of leadership ability.’ Criticisms of Henson, who has run the orchestra since 2008, included what musicians say is a lack of transparency. They cited as examples his strategy to show balanced budgets in years when there were actually deficits, in order to preserve the orchestra’s image, and said that he misled the state legislature about the orchestra’s finances when giving testimony for a bonding request. Orchestra board chair Jon Campbell disagreed, dismissing the musician’s vote of no confidence as a ‘publicity tactic.’ … ‘Michael Henson is a perfect leader at this challenging time and has the full confidence of our board.’ ”
Posted November 28, 2012
