Deborah Borda has concluded a three-year pay deal with the musicians to ensure a smooth start for the new music director Jaap Van Zweden.
The players get a 4.5 percent increase. Both sides seem content.
Across Lincoln Center, the Metropolitan Opera is about to enter another horrible wrangle with its musicians.
Statement below.
The New York Philharmonic and American Federation of Musicians Local 802, which represents the Musicians of the Orchestra, jointly announce an agreement on a new three-year contract. The agreement, which was ratified by the musicians on Thursday, March 1, 2018, calls for a 4.5% increase in wages over three years. The contract will culminate on September 20, 2020, and replaces the previous contract, which expired on September 20, 2017.
“The members of the New York Philharmonic Board and administration hold the highest respect for the skill, artistry, and dedication of these world-class musicians,” saidDeborah Borda, President & CEO of the New York Philharmonic. “We also greatly value the long-standing spirit of partnership that allows the entire organization to move forward and fulfill its artistic mission.”
“The musicians of the New York Philharmonic are devoted to bringing world-class artistry and passion to all we do and are proud of the hard work we put in every day to ensure this ensemble continues to be regarded as among the most important artistic institutions in the world,” said Nathan Vickery, cellist, Chair of Orchestra Negotiation Committee. “The artistic standards that make the Philharmonic world-renowned will remain highest when the musicians who make music each and every night are supported. With negotiations behind us, this orchestra can focus on the music and artistry for which the Philharmonic is internationally known.”
“The musicians of the New York Philharmonic play a vital role in ensuring New York City’s status as a global leader in arts and culture,” said Tino Gagliardi, President, Local 802, AFM. “Contract negotiations are never easy, and as a new Music Director and leadership team take the helm at this institution, it is our hope that this agreement will mark the beginning of a new era which strives to retain the talent that fuels the institution’s worldwide renown.”
Bonhams New York are estimating $100-150,000 for the March 9 sale of a violin that once belonged to Albert Einstein.
The maker’s inscription reads: ‘Made for the Worlds[sic] Greatest Scientist Profesior[sic] Albert Einstein By Oscar H. Steger, Feb 1933 / Harrisburg, PA.’
Steger was a cabinet maker and member of the Harrisburg Symphony Orchestra. He made the violin for Einstein on hearing that the physicist, a passionate amateur violinist, was to be resident scholar at Princeton.
Einstein passed on the violin to Lawrence Wilson Hibbs, son of a Princeton janitor and handyman Sylas Hibbs, and it has remained in the Hibbs family ever since.
image: Bonhams.
The long-running divorce of former TSO chief Jeff Melanson and heiress Eleanor McCain has ended to Melanson’s detriment. Melanson claimed a $5 million pay-off. The judge told him, forget it.
The Globe and Mail reports: The high-profile breakup of Ms. McCain, a singer and McCain Foods heiress, and Mr. Melanson, former president and CEO of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, has ended in a divorce – not an annulment as Ms. McCain had sought. Mr. Melanson will not be getting the $5-million payment initially outlined in the couple’s prenuptial agreement, but instead a settlement that has not been disclosed.
An investigation conducted by the Boston Symphony Orchestra into a sexual molestation claim by Fiona Allan against the conductor Charles Dutoit is credible.
Dutoit has denied all sexual harrassment claims made against him.
The BSO ‘s independent investigator has also uncovered reports by three more women to the effect that they were molested by Dutoit. Here is a summary:
DESCRIPTION OF INVESTIGATION OF CLAIMS OF SEXUAL MISCONDUCT BY FIONA ALLAN AGAINST CHARLES DUTOIT
The Boston Symphony Orchestra (BSO) today announced the conclusion of an independent investigation into a December 2017 online comment made by a former intern, Fiona Allan, alleging sexual misconduct by guest conductor Charles Dutoit in the summer of 1997.
The investigator found that Ms. Allen’s allegations about Mr. Dutoit’s conduct were credible and supported by her interview with the investigator, her public statements about the incident, and information providedby BSO employees that corroborated various aspects of her work as an intern in 1997 at Tanglewood, the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s summer home in the Berkshires.
Over the course of the investigation, the investigator spoke with current and former BSO employees, the investigator reported that three women with whom she spoke credibly described incidents in the 1980s and 1990s in which they too were victims of sexual misconduct by Mr. Dutoit. The BSO is not releasing additional information about the incidents in order to protect the identities of the women. The investigator found that neither Ms. Allan nor the other women complained to the BSO, and there were no indications that BSO management was aware of Mr. Dutoit’s alleged sexual misconduct prior to Ms. Allan’s public statements in late December and early January.
After learning of Ms. Allan’s allegations, the BSO immediately announced it was commencing an independent investigation. At the time, the BSO had already severed its relationship with Dutoit, following a report by the Associated Press on December 21, 2017 that detailed the accounts of four women who alleged he had sexually assaulted them at other orchestras between 1985 and 2010. Based on the additional findings of the investigation, the BSO also has decided to revoke the honorary title of 2016 Koussevitzky Artist, which Dutoit received during the 2016 Tanglewood season.
‘Let me be clear that we want to send a strong message that any form of sexual harassment or assault goes completely against our values and will not be tolerated,’ said BSO Managing Director Mark Volpe. ‘The Boston Symphony Orchestra is extraordinarily thankful to the women who participated in its independent investigation and shared information about their experiences, and wants them and the entire BSO community to know that all reports of sexual misconduct will be taken seriously, investigated, and handled expeditiously and appropriately.’
The Boston Symphony Orchestra continues to be committed to fostering a positive and harassment-free work environment. The orchestra is in the process of enhancing its employee training and is reviewing its policies and procedures to reinforce its expectations for conduct in the work place. For example, the orchestra plans to clarify and recirculate its policies against harassment, discrimination, and retaliation, including guidelines for reporting complaints, to all employees; create a secure hotline to easily and directly register complaints or concerns; institute a new, mandatory workplace conduct webinar for all new employees; and roll-out a multi-tiered training program designed for the BSO’s staff, management, musicians, volunteers, and board of trustees and overseers.
The Boston Symphony Orchestra also is making changes to its third-party engagement process to include information about the BSO’s commitment to a harassment-free workplace and to clarify the orchestra’s expectations for guest artists who work with the organization’s various performing entities, including the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Boston Pops Orchestra, and Tanglewood, among others. In addition, the BSO is committed to collaborating regularly with leaders in the field of workplace policies, as well as with colleagues at some of Boston’s leading arts and education organizations, to discuss and share best practices to ensure a safe environment in which all their employees can thrive.
Four American divas and a publisher sit around a San Francisco stage on a Sunday afternoon and tell it how it really is.
The divas are Marilyn Horne, Frederica von Stade, Patricia Racette and Deborah Voigt.
The moderator is Stephen Rubin.
No holds barred.
You will watch this til your eyes bleed.
Do not miss the divas listening to extracts of themselves.
Arms and shoulders, that is.
‘I realized that fabric is my enemy,’ she tells the New York Post.
In the costume credits, the reporter fails to mention her publicist, Sheila Porter.
… On the strength of these successes, he became the go-to man for running new colleges and foundations, the archetype Victorian administrator, upright, incorruptible and irredeemably conservative. He thought Verdi ‘immeasurably inferior’ to Rossini and struck Schumann off the Royal Academy syllabus. His own gift, such as it was, was crushed by his onerous public duties….
Lynn Harrell is among half a dozen musicians who talks to a Boston Globe investigation about the sex cult that James Levine formed with youngsters in Cleveland when he was a rising star in his twenties.
Another witness, James Lestock, identifies himself as a musician who testified to me more than 20 years ago about James Levine’s sex games and abuses (Lestock was not the only one, and I always protected my sources).
Some members recalled an evening when Levine, sitting in a recliner, groped one of the few female students in the group — an episode Lestock said he shared more than 20 years ago with journalist Norman Lebrecht, who included a similar version of the incident in his book “Who Killed Classical Music?”
“This was not a sexual thing,” said Smith, who said he also witnessed the incident. “It was like a power play, a control thing.”
Lestock, who last saw Levine in 1978, said he received a call from Levine as Lebrecht’s book went to print.
“He voluntarily said that he had abused others,” recalled Lestock. “He didn’t name names; I didn’t ask. He brought up that point and said that out loud.”
Levine denies past misconduct. The Met and Boston Symphony are investigating allegations against him.
From our string quartet diarist, Anthea Kreston:
I am eating breakfast in Brussels, where I am in the middle of a three day visit to teach our master groups and hear auditions for next season. What luxury – at the Queen Elizabeth Chapel (where the Queen Elizabeth competitions are held) – Beethoven, Shostakovich, Sibelius, Schoenberg, all played by dedicated, passionate musicians in their 20’s, and all with careers in their own right, with recording contracts, multiple managers, and International competition wins under their belts. As I teach, the two-story glass wall of the concert hall shows a forest of swaying trees, and I keep a lookout for a herd of deer, who often meander through this living landscape.
Yesterday’s auditions were impressive – not only in the variety of ensemble (string trio, piano quartet, piano trio and string quartet), but in the long road these young musicians have travelled to get this far. The pre-screened submitted auditions, which arrived months ago, the years of lessons, the travel from many different countries. Every single moment of their futures depends on these 30 minutes – what happens here changes everything for their futures. If I, myself, hadn’t made it into the Quartet program at Aspen when I was their age, and sat at lunch at a particular table, I wouldn’t have met Jason, had this family and life.
In the board-room lunch after the auditions, each member of the six-person jury argued for or against each of the groups. Were they balanced, were they creative – do they have relentless drive and a vision of their futures? Do they have the time to dedicate to this – can they give up all else for this? Was there magic?
We have to be selective – only one or two can be accepted, because we already have a studio filled with groups who will stay, continuing to the next phase of their careers. We accept them at the beginning – while still students, teach them, show them how to teach themselves, and watch and help as they spread their wings and begin to fly.
My last days in Israel were fantastic, and I was finally able to eat some unbelievable foods – from street foods at the Carmel Market to late-night banquets in covered courtyards. I was wrapped in the sauces, loved the tender and crisp. I will attempt to recreate a dish here that you can cook at home. Bear in mind that I don’t measure – but give it a try!
Cauliflower, Israeli Couscous and Pomegranate Thing
Ingredients:
Pomegranate
Onions
Israeli Couscous
Veg or Chicken Stock
Cauliflower – dinner-plate amount (2-3 smaller heads or one huge one)
Optional:
Yoghurt
Get some onions going in a large pan, and start a big pot of water also. While the onions are getting good, chop your cauliflower, stem and leaves too, and plop them in the water. Get a healthy amount of stock warmed. Throw the couscous into the onions after they are crisp/translucent, and brown the couscous. Now your cauliflower is probably done – just needs a minute – and put in colander to steam dry. Throw your hot stock over the couscous and onions, and let cook. Take your cauliflower and brown a bit in another pan – I put both butter and oil in there. That was good. Now open your spice cupboard and get creative. I didn’t have things like sumac or zatar but if you do, now is your moment. I put in a big handful of sesame seeds, some curry, nutmeg, and Herbs de Provence (here called Kräuter des Provence). You might need to add some liquid in there. While this is all happening, get your pomegranate – I have a super way to get those seeds out without crushing them. “Scalp” the top, peeling the skin off to reveal the seeds. Then score along the lines of the sections – you can see where they are now. Pull apart those sections so now it is kindof like an unpeeled, irregular orange. Turn a section, seed-down, in your hand, and thwump the skin vigorously with the handle of your knife. The seeds will dislodge and fall into your hands. Mostly.
Now combine all of the hot ingredients, and serve with a handful of pomegranate seeds on top. Viola.
Optional yoghurt:
You should have started this last night, but if you do it now, you will use it tomorrow on everything. It is addictive.
Line a colander with coffee filters and dump all of your yoghurt in there. Let it drain for at least 2 hours, and up to 24. Then add whatever you want – plain, pepper, cucumber, curry, regular spices, then a little swivel of good olive oil on top. This is great on top of the cauliflower thing, or on warmed bread, or carrots, or just on your finger like my 6 year old ate it.
