Issue: December 2015
A GRS Negotiation Update The musicians of the Grand Rapids Symphony (all members of the AFM Local 56, Grand Rapids) have been negotiating for a new contract since April 27th with the Grand Rapids Symphony Society. The four-year agreement between the musicians and the Society expired August 31, 2015. Since September 1st, the musicians have been working without a successor contract in a “work and … [Read more...]
Issue: December 2015
After months of negotiations and 12 bargaining sessions, the musicians of the Fort Worth Symphony are facing essentially the same proposal from management that we received last summer. We took a 13.5% pay cut in 2010 and lost weeks, and now they want even more. Their current proposal is a cut from 46 full-time paid weeks to 39 full-time paid weeks plus a four-week “Summer Season”. With inflation … [Read more...]
Issue: Chairperson's Reports
As I write at my desk tonight, it is four days before Thanksgiving in the United States. We are about to enter the holiday season, a season that in many ways is defined by music and memories. The musicians of ICSOM will be performing music that is all too familiar to us, with countless Nutcrackers, Messiahs, and holiday arrangements we have performed hundreds if not thousands of times. While we … [Read more...]
Issue: December 2015
Since assuming my new position on the Governing Board, I have been perusing past issues of Senza Sordino from the online archives. The history of ICSOM is a rich one, and much of it is chronicled in Senza’s many articles. One item that fairly jumped out at me was a message that our Chairman, Bruce Ridge, has been touching on for years, going back to his early days on the Governing Board. It’s a … [Read more...]
Issue: December 2015
As ICSOM’s newest Member-at-Large, I represent 13 orchestras to the Governing Board. My group includes the Cincinnati Symphony, an orchestra of which I have many fond memories. I lived in Cincinnati from 1982 to 1993, obtaining two graduate performance degrees from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, as well as free-lancing and teaching privately in the area during that … [Read more...]
Issue: December 2015
There is currently a financial crisis in Puerto Rico. The government’s debt is more than $72 billion and it missed a payment for the first time in August. The local economy has been in recession for ten consecutive years. Some of our ICSOM colleagues have had to deal with the effects of economic crises, but the structure of the Puerto Rico Symphony Orchestra (OSPR) makes the difficulties of our … [Read more...]
Issue: Counsel's Columns
Recently, the United Auto Workers (UAW) reached contract agreements with Ford, General Motors, and Fiat Chrysler. The essential details of these largely similar deals have been reported in the press. The UAW obtained wage increases of 3% to 4% annually through a combination of raises and bonuses, and there is now a pathway to elimination of the two-tier system in which employees hired after 2007 … [Read more...]
Issue: December 2015
Working together to achieve a common goal is the heart of unionism. And an important part of working together, of collaboration, is the communication that makes it all possible. In a union as large as the AFM, it’s important that musicians understand what everyone else is doing. In these next few issues of Senza Sordino I’d like to open up the dialog about issues that should concern us, so we can … [Read more...]
Issue: December 2015
The Kansas City Symphony Enjoys a Taste of New York As Major League Baseball finalized its World Series matchup, on October 23rd during a Kansas City Symphony concert, KCS Music Director Michael Stern proposed a friendly wager to New York Philharmonic Music Director Alan Gilbert: if the New York Mets won the World Series the KCS would send Kansas City’s best BBQ, and when the Kansas City Royals … [Read more...]
Issue: December 2015
On October 5, 2015, ICSOM lost one of its cofounders, Reinhardt Elster. The distinguished harpist, who performed everything from jazz to opera with many of the greatest musicians of the 20th century, died peacefully at his home in western Massachusetts after complications from a fall. He was 101. Mr. Elster was born in Hammond, Indiana, on July 23, 1914, the only child of German and Swedish … [Read more...]
