Drew McManus on the orchestra business.
The articles about the International Guild of Symphony, Opera, & Ballet Musicians (IGSOBM), the Seattle based musicians’ union, generated some good questions from readers this week. One question came from an orchestra patron in Oregon: “Why did the [Seattle Symphony] musicians leave the AFM in the first place?” The answer to this question is rather involved. The simple answer is the Seattle Symphony players’ association was not seeing eye-to-eye with their …
Part 1 from this series examined what the International Guild of Symphony, Opera, & Ballet Musicians (IGSOBM) is and how it is structured. In this installment, we’ll begin to explore how individual chapters within The Guild (simultaneously referred to as IGSOBM by its members) determine the best methods to function as medium for collective representation. To begin with, we’ll examine the largest chapter represented by The Guild, the Seattle Symphony and …
This piece was originally intended for publication during the middle of 2005 but a variety of factors prevented its completion. Nevertheless, in light of recent events surrounding the contention resulting from Gerard Schwarz’s contract extension as the Seattle Symphony Orchestra’s music director, there’s no time like the present. From an organizational perspective the administration and board of the Seattle Symphony Orchestra (SSO) function much the same way as their peers. They …
Following the article from 6/13/05 about musician tenure and artistic review issues, I received a flurry of email on the subject. Most of it was from musicians, ranging from those just entering the business to seasoned veterans.
After going through all of the messages there was a central theme beginning to emerge which nearly every responder touched on; preventing the need for artistic review related arbitration in the first place.
The Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony’s new “merit based pay” structure is something that has caught the attention of a few managers and musicians alike here in the U.S. Initial word of the deal came out several weeks ago and the most recent article in the 6/12/05 edition of the New York Times by Makiko Inoue reveals a few new details.