The US musician labor movement has much to learn about the modern art of protesting from their Dutch counterparts where musicians from the Dutch Radio Orchestra staged a flashmob event at The Hague central train station on October 26, 2010. It was a very impressive event and one that has a great deal of potential not only by player associations but any orchestral organization looking for a way to react against funding cuts…
Negotiations
Jumping The Gun
Whenever an orchestra goes out on strike, it isn’t unusual for folks to get a little jumpy and the bigger the group that strikes, the jumpier folks get. Case in point, not long after the Detroit Symphony Orchestra (DSO) went on strike, I started receiving messages from readers asking when I was going to write something about the Fort Worth Symphony shortly after that organization’s negotiations made local headlines…
Latest Detroit News
In the wake of last Friday’s informal discussions, the management and musicians of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra (DSO) are no closer to resolving the month long work stoppage than they were since the first day of the strike. According to reports in the Detroit Free Press and Detroit News, the discussions produced no breakthroughs and since then the DSO has canceled concerts through November 28, 2010…
Expansionary Or Diversionary?
Last Friday, 11/5/2010, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra (DSO) and its musicians declared a pseudo cease fire in the one month, three day long strike by agreeing to engage in “informal discussions.” According to reports in the Detroit News by Michael Hodges and Detroit Free Press by Mark Stryker, there aren’t many details but what we don’t know can sometimes be as useful as what we do know… As for the press …
Where’s Leonard?
On 10/31/2010, the Detroit Free Press published an article by Mark Stryker that examines the role of Detroit Symphony Orchestra music director Leonard Slatkin within the month long work stoppage. In full disclosure, I would describe my professional relationship with Leonard to a degree that might be characterized as a conflict of interest so I’m not going to offer any personal observations but I will say that Stryker put together an excellent piece…