Issue: March 2021
It was one year ago this month that our world changed drastically. Many ICSOM musicians were in the midst of rehearsing for upcoming performances when they were instructed to pack up all belongings, go home, and await further instructions. In the weeks that followed, daily schedules were upended. Survival mode kicked in, and many examined the usual steps of their normal routines for revised ways … [Read more...]
Issue: March 2021
San Francisco Opera Returns to the Stage The San Francisco Opera (SFO) announced a return to live performances—but not at its usual venue, the War Memorial Opera House. Instead, SFO will stage a drive-in production at the Marin Center in San Rafael, an abridged 90-minute version of Rossini’s The Barber of Seville with no intermission. The expurgations include the chorus and a few of the … [Read more...]
Issue: March 2020
Detroit Moves Fast The last two weeks of January were eventful ones for the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. On January 22, the DSO announced that Italian conductor Jader Bignamini has been appointed Music Director, beginning with the 2020-2021 season. Bignamini was first introduced to the DSO in the spring of 2018, stepping in at the last minute for Leonard Slatkin in concert performances of … [Read more...]
Issue: December 2019
The Clarion Quartet, consisting entirely of members of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra (PSO), had the honor of playing at the American Academy in Berlin on the orchestra’s recent European tour. Joining us was our music director, Manfred Honeck, and members of our board and management. The special concert, with the theme “Peace, Culture, and Remembrance”, was scheduled on the orchestra’s first … [Read more...]
Issue: June 2019
At both the 2016 AFM convention in Las Vegas and the 2016 ICSOM Conference in Washington, DC, resolutions were adopted in support of substitute musicians receiving the same per-service base pay as the regularly contracted musicians in our orchestras. I thought that it would be important to visit this topic three years later to see the progress that ICSOM has made in this area, as well as to … [Read more...]
Issue: Chairperson's Reports
As it becomes increasingly clear that diversity in our orchestras must be a priority moving into the future, more opportunities to facilitate that goal are being created within our industry each year. The National Alliance for Audition Support (NAAS) is an unprecedented national initiative created by the Sphinx Organization (which is the program leader and fiscal administrator of NAAS), the New … [Read more...]
Issue: March 2019
A name was spoken, and a young child dressed in white walked onstage, carrying a candle. This happened eleven times. In the silence as the children walked, the occasional faint sob pierced the hall, all the more piercing for being forcefully restrained. Joyce Fienberg Richard Gottfried Rose Mallinger Jerry Rabinowitz Cecil Rosenthal David Rosenthal Bernice Simon Sylvan Simon Daniel … [Read more...]
Issue: March 2019
New Contract and New Leadership The San Francisco Symphony (SFS) recently announced two positive developments. In November, the musicians ratified a four-year agreement with increases in wages and in the defined-benefit pension plan. The contract also includes a provision for shared equity funding, in which the administration will lend money to a musician to help fund a portion of the down … [Read more...]
Issue: December 2018
Note: The following is the text of a speech delivered at a Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra concert on October 28, the day after the shooting at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh. Good afternoon. My name is Stephen Kostyniak, I am a member of the French horn section of the Pittsburgh Symphony, and this year I am chair of the Orchestra Committee of the PSO Musicians. Speaking in the … [Read more...]
Issue: October 2018
In the summer of 2016, I was looking for a non-profit organization that the Musicians of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra (PSO) could partner with on a regular basis. I sent out a number of emails to established local food pantries and one to a newer organization called 412 Food Rescue. At the time, I didn’t know much about what food rescue meant, but I had seen the logo of the organization … [Read more...]
