Labor Relations

Minnesota Orchestra Musicians Donate $250k To Association. No Funds Earmarked For Eliminating Substitute Pay Disparity.

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Adaptistration People 174

The lovefest that is labor relations between the Minnesota Orchestra Association (MOA) and the Musicians of the Minnesota Orchestra (MOMO) crossed a new threshold last week with the announcement that the musicians decided to donate $250,000 in restricted use funds to the MOA for the purpose of establishing The Bellwether Fund, a new program designed to underwrite education and community programming via activity that includes previous musician run initiatives outside the …

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Maestro Rules #21: Don’t Call Your Concertmaster “A Sweetie”

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Adaptistration People 085

There’s a fascinating article by Katharine Biele in the 11/11/2015 edition of the Salt Lake City Weekly that examines a string of key musician dismissals and demotions alongside a general uptick in musician attrition at the Utah Symphony since current music director, Thierry Fischer, arrived in 2009. At 4600 words, the article is decidedly exhaustive but it is also well researched and includes a host of quotes from key figures in …

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Let’s Talk About The Unionized Environment Within The Orchestra Field

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Adaptistration People 143

On 10/3/15, I had the pleasure to return as a guest on Doing What Works with Maureen Anderson, a weekly radio talk show that originates from WZFG AM 1100 and runs on Sundays from 10 to midnight Central on the Radio America network, to talk about the unique unionized environment within the orchestra field. If you’ve ever been interested in a solid overview of how that structure has evolved, how unionized …

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Knowing When You Shouldn’t Get Involved

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Adaptistration People 023

One of the most frequent reader questions coming in from musicians is “do you ever write about [insert musician oriented topic here]?” By and large, although the topic may be fascinating it really doesn’t have much impact from an administrator’s point of view and unless its byproduct becomes something to be attended to administratively (such as the equal pay for equal work topic) we tend to steer clear of those issues. …

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MN Patron Group Mute On Substitute Equal Pay For Equal Work Topic

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Last week’s pair of articles (part 1 and part 2) examining the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra (BSO) musicians’ decision to go public with concerns over artistic integrity in the wake of extended austerity measures produced an intriguing byproduct related to the topic of equal pay for equal work. On one hand, BSO president and CEO, Paul Meecham, proclaimed that the orchestra has managed to “attract high quality substitute players without any difficulty” …

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