Exemplary US orch signs 6-year deal with musicians
mainYou will have read over the past few days that four US orchestras are out of contact and one of them has forced its musicians into a crippling strike.
Not so at Buffalo, where the Philharmonic has quietly agreed a six-year deal with its musicians, involving a 12.6 percent pay increase over the course of the contract, among other benefits.
That’s how it ought to be done.
Read the full story here by our upstate pal Mary Kunz Goldman.
Buffalo is one helluva town. It’s the only place I’ve been to where the music director arranged to meet me at a working men’s sports bar, festooned with football and hunting trophies.
Another “exemplary” deal:
http://www.indystar.com/story/news/2016/09/16/indianapolis-symphony-orchestra/90429260/
Someone please dig the post where this blog lauded the FW Symphony as an example of fiscal responsibility during the Philadelphia/Detroit crisis a couple of years ago. Nowadays…its a different story.
If I were the Buffallo philharmonic I’d start to worry…..
Boy, all the nasty people on this blog. Why not just say three cheers for Jo Ann Falletta and what her team has achieved there.
12.6% over 6 years is not huge, but it sure beats cuts. This is great news, if it actually comes to pass.
(My orchestra had a 4-year contract once upon a time, with significant pay increases scheduled for each year. The first two years went as planned, followed by 4 years of freezes, followed by cuts that undid the gains those first two years, leaving us in 2012-13 getting paid the same as in 2006. So forgive me if I’m a little skeptical.)