Drew McManus

Yesterday’s article examined the decision by the St. Louis Symphony management to cancel the musician’s health insurance because of the current contract negotiation impasse.  Historically, the situation during the 1996 strike by the San Francisco Symphony musicians demonstrated that this approach to force an end to a work stoppage has never been very successful. By

Sunday’s issue of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch contained an article by music critic Sarah Bryan Miller.  Sara’s article does a good job at showing the latest development in the contract negations between SLSO management and musicians that is turning into a quagmire before our very eyes. This latest development has to do with health insurance.

The Partial Observer published an article of mine today which expands on the concept of whether or not there are limits to how much a community can support an orchestra.  The piece examines how the past year’s round of negotiations and the current SLSO situation may be a preview of things to come.

Many readers took the time to respond to the questions posed in the article from December 30th, 2004.  The vast majority of responses were related to the question, “Does owning and using these instruments make the NJSO better than or distinguish it from any other orchestra in the country?” Many of you answered the question