“The Springfield Symphony Orchestra will host two concerts at Symphony Hall in April and May—what will be its first concerts in more than two years due to COVID-19 and stalled contract talks with its musicians union,” writes Jim Kinney in Wednesday’s (1/19) Republican (Springfield, MA). Mark Russell Smith will guest conduct the concerts. “ ‘It’s just great news,” said Paul Lambert, the Springfield Symphony Orchestra’s interim executive director…. The National Labor Relations Board ordered two concerts under a settlement agreement reached Jan. 4, also requiring the SSO to pay musicians $276,406. Under the terms of the settlement, the SSO had 30 days to send out the formal contract offers. The union, Local 171 American Federation of Musicians, filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board in May 2021 saying the SSO wasn’t working in good faith under the terms of the expired contract…. ‘We are glad that they will be playing these concerts, regardless of the genesis,’ violinist Bob Lawrence, member of the musicians committee, said Wednesday…. Lambert has been on the job a week…. He said the National Labor Relations Board settlement orders both sides back to the bargaining table. In the meantime, his focus is on organizing the two spring concerts.”
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