International Conference of Symphony and Opera Musicians

Substitute Parity At ICSOM Orchestras 2019

Tuesday, March 26th, 2019 by Drew McManus

In 2014, we took a deep dive into which International Conference of Symphony and Opera Musicians (ICSOM) symphonic orchestras paid substitute musicians the same rate as core musicians and in the wake of a recent conversation with ICSOM chairperson Meredith Snow and ICSOM President Paul Austin, it’s time to update that list. My thanks to Paul Austin for spearheading this effort and providing ICSOM’s list of changes. As with most comparative …

And Then That Happened

Wednesday, October 25th, 2017Wednesday, September 14th, 2016 by Drew McManus

I’m away at the 2016 @ArtsMidwest conference today but want to quickly point out two items of notes related to substitute parity (paying substitute musicians an equal per-service rate as their salary based colleagues). Regular readers know the topic of equal pay for equal work among orchestra musicians is a popular topic and one ongoing curiosity throughout those articles is a complete reticence by spokespersons from orchestra player associations, player conferences, …

A Crisis Of Conscience Inside The AFM

Friday, April 10th, 2015 by Drew McManus

The topic of equal pay for equal work as applied to substitute musician wages has been an uphill examination over the past year. We began exploring the topic in the wake of the Minnesota Orchestra settlement that ended their season-killing lockout after learning the agreement failed to maintain wage parity for substitute musicians and even when the option of achieving parity through direct action was available, the musicians and their Local …

Equal Work For Equal Pay: An Orchestra Musician Third Rail Topic

Monday, February 16th, 2015 by Drew McManus

One of the most common tasks in my consulting work with boards and administrators is adjusting preconceived notions about the musicians union. One of the reasons misconceptions are so common is the musicians’ unique level of self-determination and direct representation is in stark contrast to most other labor unions. A Fascinating History Beginning in the 1960s, orchestra musicians sought to displace the existing method for crafting collective bargaining agreements (CBA) by …

The Ridge Address: A Warning-Response Opportunity

Friday, June 29th, 2018Monday, March 26th, 2012 by Drew McManus

Although I plan to post my observations about the entire 2012 American Orchestra Summit later this week, I wanted to focus on what was perhaps the most engaging component of the entire event: a keynote address from International Conference of Symphony and Opera Musicians (ICSOM) chair Bruce Ridge and the subsequent rebuttal session with League of American Orchestras president Jesse Rosen.