Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Houston Symphony Cutting Jobs, Salaries


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Posted by Jay Bertolet on January 25, 2003 at 09:19:37:

In Reply to: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Houston Symphony Cutting Jobs, Salaries posted by dp on January 25, 2003 at 04:04:45:

Dale,

I can appreciate your feelings of closeness to the situations in San Jose when they had difficulties. I sincerely hope you don't think I'm being antagonistic to you personally. That is certainly not my intention. However, I have to point out that the answer to my earlier statement appears to be "No, you've never actually been involved in a symphony contract negotiation". Please don't think that because you played in the orchestra at the time or because you attended concerts when the dispute occurred means that you're privy to what goes on at the table. I can assure you that the public face and the private face of these types of negotiations are COMPLETELY different. To publicly speculate about the dynamics of the situation from 1000's of miles away is foolish. I also hope that you can see the insulting nature of your comments regarding "dead wood" players. You suggest that such players may be the root cause of this situation, that the management is trying to do an end run around the tenure clauses of the contract in an attempt to rid the orchestra of these players who "do not pull their weight". I can also assure you that playing skills may have absolutely nothing to do with why these musicians are being pursued. The tenure clauses in a contract also protect really good musicians from being dismissed for arbitrary reasons, like the music director wanting to bring in his best friend who just happens to play violin, etc.

Like I said before, idle speculation without knowing the facts is foolish. Your comments, though I still believe you have good intentions, show you don't really understand how these situations work. Do you really believe that these dismissed players, if they play great, will be rewarded with all the per service work because of their skills? I guarantee you that the personnel manager is under orders from the music director about who he hires (or doesn't) in the freelance market. If the orchestra is dismissing these musicians, they are doing so for a reason. To deny these musicians their peer review of that decision (if indeed it is because of artistic reasons) is a serious breach of the contract. Most orchestras I know of would be striking by now if faced with a similar situation.

All I'm saying here is that it is sad that the musicians in this orchestra have to go through this type of situation. I sincerely wish them the best and hope they can resolve the situation while keeping intact the really great orchestra they have built. I'm sure you would join me that wish.

My opinion for what it's worth...


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