Issue: October 2010
The 2010 ICSOM Conference, held August 18-21 at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Houston, was a resounding success due in no small part to the musicians of the Houston Symphony Orchestra and the Houston Professional Musicians, Local 65-699, who pulled out all the stops as conference hosts. The delegates to what turned out to be one of the best attended ICSOM Conferences in years were greeted at the … [Read more...]
Issue: Chairperson's Reports
This summer I delivered speeches to the AFM Convention, the ROPA Conference, and the ICSOM Conference. The following are excerpts from each of those speeches. AFM Convention, Las Vegas, June 24 There can be no doubt that these are difficult times, both within our union and for the arts across North America. But we believe that every crisis is an opportunity, and we believe that the ways things … [Read more...]
Issue: October 2010
To say that we live in interesting times would be an understatement. Many of our orchestras face unprecedented attacks on their collective bargaining agreements. Even as I write this, the musicians of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra are on strike in order to save their venerable institution. The lack of meaningful negotiations by the management in Fort Worth has reached a critical point. The … [Read more...]
Issue: October 2010
My trip to Las Vegas in June was the second time I visited that city. Amazingly enough for me, after never having set foot in Las Vegas before, both of my excursions to Las Vegas occurred in the space of a little over six months. My first trip to Las Vegas had been for the January 11, 2010, AFM meeting on the state of our AFM-EPF pension, which I attended as a representative of my local. The … [Read more...]
Issue: October 2010
Mike Okun WHEREAS, Attorney Michael G. Okun, of Patterson Harkavy LLC, has served as interim counsel to the International Conference of Symphony and Opera Musicians since August, 2009; and WHEREAS, Mike Okun stepped in at a moment’s notice, at a time when legal advice and assistance were vital to the ICSOM Governing Board; and WHEREAS, Mike Okun has been instrumental in assisting the ICSOM … [Read more...]
Issue: October 2010
The San Antonio Symphony Orchestra welcomed its new music director, Sebastian Lang-Lessing, with a sold-out gala performance on October 2nd, 2010. A champagne toast followed the concert at the 2,311-seat Majestic Theater. Delegate Emily Freudigman reports that the Majestic will remain home to the SAS until the opening of the Tobin Center for the Arts, scheduled for 2013. The orchestra was joined … [Read more...]
Issue: October 2010
As of this writing (October 2), attempts to negotiate a new contract for the musicians of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra have failed, and the musicians have announced a strike date of October 4. The orchestra had been working under the terms of a three-year agreement negotiated in 2007. That agreement contained some concessions in the first two years and, in its third year, a return to Detroit’s … [Read more...]
Issue: October 2010
As the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra begins its 131st season, many of the musicians (especially us old-timers) look back in amazement at the shambles things were just a few years ago. After a matched gift of over $80 million, management began operating like a bank, putting all its eggs in the endowment basket and hinging its future plans on endowment draw. When the basket handle broke, we were … [Read more...]
