There hasn’t been much news about the Louisville Orchestra (LO) work stoppage in the past several weeks following the board’s empty gesture for arbitration and the subsequent musician rejection, but it seems that the LO is forging ahead with a previous plan to hire replacement musicians. Following a rocky start with advertisements in a series of craigslist outlets and direct appeals, the latest incarnation comes in the form of Facebook and Google ads.
Both advertisements point to a page at the LO website which features a jpg flyer with the same basic details that were included in previous versions. Likewise, there is no information about when and where auditions intend to be held nor are there any details such as required repertoire, the composition of the audition committee, starting dates, etc.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the recent attempt to solicit replacement musicians is being met with an equal amount of resistance from the existing LO musicians and their supporters via a variety of social media outlets.
So at this point, it seems not much has changed beyond the LO’s latest incarnation of replacement musician recruitment efforts. To date, the LO has been tight-lipped on details surrounding the quantity and/or quality of applications they’ve received but if the Kentucky Opera’s replacement orchestra [sws_css_tooltip position=”left” colorscheme=”rosewood” width=”450″ url=”” trigger=”results” fontSize=”14″]Which consisted predominantly of high school and college students alongside non-professional instrumentalists. [/sws_css_tooltip] are any indication, finding enough replacement musicians is an unlikely outcome.
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I am confused by the words “Minimum 30 weeks employment.” I am supposed to be a member of the Louisville Orchestra, and I have not been offered that.
Good question.
One of my colleagues has reminded me of an offer from last summer (the end of May?) that was some people get 30 weeks, some get 20 weeks, and some get 10.
Which offer was later rescinded.
Interesting, it certainly would be interesting to know if all of these replacement musician offers are for the full weeks listed or the tiered structure you mentioned.
I have a Google Adwords account so I added some of the terms that I entered to successfully bring up the Louisville Orchestra “Apply Now!” ad. The search terms “Orchestra Jobs” was estimated $3.50 per click on first page of google search. All the terms I tried were between an estimated 2.50 per click and 3.75 per click.
Maybe this is an upgrade from Craigslist but @ $3.00 per click so that we can share with our friends the latest oddball antics of Rob Birman and company it doesn’t seem classy enough to warrant the price.. Friends of friends and aunts and uncles of Louisville musicians can join in the fun at the orchestra’s expense. Any serious applications as a result of these ads? Doubtful.
Echoing Julia’s comment, this looks like more smoke and mirrors than an earnest attempt at getting candidates.
I especially enjoy the new header area on their updated announcement flyer. That red, large, off-center, all-cap grunge-font set certainly draws attention.
We have a regular joke around here in my design workplace about large red fonts and how that just screams desperation. If only the LOI could make that font blink on-and-off like the old days of HTML … that would be the final piece de resistance. Maybe some music running in the background too – music that you can’t turn off.
(I may need to update my parody of it sometime soon…)
While the move is insulting and desperate I have been told by by a friend who had lunch with a member of the ALO (Association of the Louisville Orchestra, a closely connected support group that has been in existence for a long time and is initially accessed through the LO website) that Mr. Birman has “assured her an orchestra season will begin in September”.
Can’t wait to hear it. I’ll bet they will sound great. I wonder how they will get kids excused from school so they can rehearse?