Issue: December 2020
COVID-19 has presented no fewer challenges in Fort Worth than in the rest of the world, but the musicians of the FWSO feel fortunate that our salaries and benefits have been neither diminished, nor interrupted. On April 30, 2020, the musicians ratified a one-year extension of the previous four-year agreement. The number of weeks remains 46, pay remains exactly the same; benefits change with a new … [Read more...]
Issue: October 2018
New Leadership in Fort Worth The Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra (FWSO) announced the appointment of Keith Cerny as President and CEO. Dr. Cerny will begin his tenure on January 11, 2019. He comes to the FWSO with an impressive educational background, having studied conducting at London’s Guildhall School of Music and holding graduate degrees from Harvard Business School and the U.K.’s Open … [Read more...]
Issue: June 2018
Violins of Hope and Schindler’s List Too The Violins of Hope project, which brought approximately 25 violins, a viola, and a cello to Nashville from mid-March to June 2, was nearly 27 months in the making. The instruments, collected and restored by father and son Amnon and Avshi Weinstein and played by Jewish musicians during the Holocaust, survived concentration camps, pogroms, and long journeys … [Read more...]
Issue: March 2018
Playing with pain. We’ve all heard about it in regard to the world of sports. However, symphony orchestra audience members rarely, if ever, hear about it pertaining to the people who make the beautiful music they have come to hear. It just doesn’t fit into their highly romanticized conception of what it means to be a classical music performer. Yet many of us play with pain on a daily basis. … [Read more...]
Issue: June 2017
Executive Changes In March, the New York Philharmonic announced that Deborah Borda, longtime President of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, would be replacing Matthew VanBesien as President and CEO, in September. The move represents a return for Borda, who previously served as the Executive Director of the New York orchestra from 1991 to 1999. In Los Angeles she oversaw the construction of the Walt … [Read more...]
Issue: March 2017
ICSOM at the Grammys At the 59th annual Grammy awards on February 12, the Nashville Symphony’s album Daugherty: Tales Of Hemingway; American Gothic; Once Upon A Castle won awards in three categories: Best Classical Compendium, Best Classical Contemporary Composition, and Best Classical Instrumental Solo. The last two awards were specifically for Tales of Hemingway, featuring cellist Zuill Bailey. … [Read more...]
Issue: December 2016
The Musicians of the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra ratified a four-year agreement on Wednesday, December 7, 2016, thereby ending a strike that began on September 8, 2016. The musicians will return to work on December 26. It is a contract with clear growth and no cuts. This is a major victory, especially considering where negotiations started 18 months ago—in June of 2015, our management had … [Read more...]
Issue: December 2016
I don’t think I’m going out on a limb by opining that the result of this year’s presidential election left some Senza Sordino readers devastated, some exultant, but almost all surprised. Similarly, it seems safe to say that the President-elect’s mercurial pronouncements on the campaign trail and the “Thank You Tour” have left us with a great deal of uncertainty about what exactly will happen once … [Read more...]
Issue: October 2016
On September 8, 2016, after 15 months of unproductive negotiations, the musicians of the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra left the stage of the Bass Performance Hall, walked outside, and replaced bows and bocals with picket signs. The decision to strike was painful, but we had reached our breaking point. The Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra has a relatively short history. Founded in 1925 as a … [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...]
