“With a minimum of strife or public posturing, members of the San Francisco Opera Orchestra have ratified a new contract with the company that provides the musicians with annual raises of 3 percent a year for the next four years,” writes Joshua Kosman in Thursday’s (9/11) San Francisco Chronicle. “The contract, which runs through July 31, 2018, also includes changes to the musicians’ health coverage that are expected to save the company $300,000 to $400,000 annually…. Four months of behind-the-scenes negotiations between the Opera management and the players, represented by Local 6 of the American Federation of Musicians, was enough to produce a comparatively long contract. The agreement will also clear the way for a number of ambitious new projects in the company’s immediate future. In 2016, the Opera will expand its activities into the Wilsey Center for Opera at the renovated Veterans Building next door to the War Memorial Opera House, which will include a 299-seat theater appropriate for the presentation of smaller operas.”
Posted September 12, 2014
