Photo credit: Brian Prechtl

At the Baltimore Symphony, we are navigating a long and winding road back to deploying a full stage of full-time musicians!

From the 1970s until 2003, the Baltimore Symphony consisted of 96 onstage musicians and two librarians, all 98 of whom were in the bargaining unit. In 2003 Baltimore Symphony Musicians allowed four vacancies “on a temporary basis” for the first time in a concessionary agreement before eventually agreeing in a July 2008 MOU to fill those four vacancies by the end of the 2010–11 season.

Two months later, the Great Recession began.

Four successive concessionary agreements rapidly ensued, mostly in the form of extensions to the original three-year agreement with pay freezes and then pay cuts included. We musicians were so focused on limiting the damage caused by the reduction of compensation that we didn’t focus enough on the erosion of our complement. Vacancies began to occur, and auditions were scheduled for those deemed important enough to fill. By 2013, the Baltimore Symphony consisted of 80 onstage musicians and two librarians. In September 2013 a new, three-year agreement mandated a minimum of 83 musicians.

But maintaining even that minimum complement became difficult. BSO management was responsible for scheduling auditions, and they showed no sense of urgency. When we pointed out that the agreement said that 83 was the minimum number, we were told that the BSO couldn’t afford more than 83. To management, 83 was the maximum number. And because it isn’t possible to predict the exact timing of retirements and musicians leaving for other jobs, the BSO never maintained the required 83 musicians during this three-year agreement.

In 2016–17 and 2017–18, the BSO and Baltimore Symphony musicians signed successive one-year contracts, this time with salary increases but without increases in the number of musicians. After our 2018 summer tour of Edinburgh, London, and Dublin, we returned to Baltimore only to be told that we would need to take a 20% cut in our compensation. We played and talked for most of the 2018–19 season, but in June 2019, our board and management locked us out, claiming an inability to continue to pay our salaries over the summer. After a 14-week lockout, we returned to work in September 2019 with yet another one-year agreement.

Then COVID happened. By the time we returned to the stage to perform for live audiences again in the fall of 2021, the number of musicians in the Baltimore Symphony had dropped to the low 70s. 

Thankfully, we ratified a more progressive five-year agreement in August 2020, with plans to gradually increase the complement of the orchestra, reaching 85 tenure track musicians by the 2024–25 season. Implementation hasn’t been easy. Despite the valiant efforts of our personnel office, union stewards, and various audition committees to hire musicians as quickly as possible, the complement still remains lower than the contractually-obligated number of musicians. However, one great improvement achieved in our current agreement is that the Baltimore Symphony is required to hire enough one-year musicians to bring the complement up to the minimum number each season when the organization lacks the required number of tenure-track musicians. One-year musicians also now receive 100% of the salary and benefits that tenure-track musicians receive.

We have scheduled many auditions for the 2023–24 season. With persistence, patience, and a little good fortune, we continue to strive to have a fuller symphony orchestra here in Baltimore. And one thing we have learned the hard way: be careful of what you agree to give up. It’s hard to get it back!