Lawyers go head to head in concertmaster vs orchestra showdown

Lawyers go head to head in concertmaster vs orchestra showdown

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norman lebrecht

September 11, 2019

Lawyers for concertmaster Holly Mulcahy and her employer, the Chattanooga Symphony Orchestra, will meet for the first and possibly only time next Monday to see if a settlement can be reached. If not, the case will go to trial.

Ms Mulcahy is suing for up to $25,000 over the cancellation of a concerto she was down to perform next month. She claims this amounts to breach of her contract.

 

 

Comments

  • PHF says:

    Filing a lawsuit is the typical solution for everything in Trumpland… and It is spreading.

  • Why would they burden a very provincial orchestra with a tiny budget with this sort of conflict instead of just working things out or just forgetting about it? Is this supposed to help Holly’s image?

    Anyway, Roy Rogers once bought a new pair of boots, only to have them carried off by a mountain lion. Dale saw the animal in the woods and asked, “Pardon me Roy, is that the cat that chewed your new shoes?” Musical history was made….

    • Bruce says:

      You have to know the song for this to be funny. (And even then you take your chances…)

      • Rich Patina says:

        An Indian chief was feeling very sick, so he summoned the medicine man. After a brief examination, the medicine man took out a long, thin strip of elk rawhide and gave it to the chief, telling him to bite off, chew, and swallow one inch of the leather every day. After a month, the medicine man returned to see how the chief was feeling. The chief shrugged and said, “The thong is ended, but the malady lingers on.”

        • Bruce says:

          I’m glad I haven’t heard any of these applied to a song I really like. (And no, I’m not going to tell you what songs I like so you can find one for me 🙂 )

          I also heard this one before I knew the song:

          Once there was a monastery where the monks took a vow of silence except when they all gathered to chant the word “morning” in the morning and the word “evening” in the evening. One morning the abbot could hear someone singing the wrong word, and said: “Someone chanted evening.”

    • Sisko24 says:

      Disgusting (LOL!).

    • Just a "provincial" musician says:

      This is exactly this sort of condescending remark that takes joy in kicking musicians when they are being abused.

      All you’re doing is blaming the victim.

      Why are you assuming the orchestra is the one burdened? Do you really think lawsuits get filed because they are easy or the issues are trivial?

      It would seem that you have all sorts of inside knowledge otherwise any reasonable person would assume this was a decision of last resort.

      I’ve had to file grievances against orchestras I worked for and I can say they tear you up on the inside and keep you up at night. By comparison, that’s nothing next to a lawsuit so I can’t imagine for a moment this is over a trivial issue or just a programming change.

      So let me ask you this: would it help any musician’s image if they became known as someone who is nothing more than a doormat who can be abused whenever it suits an abusive manager?

      I for one hope that if the case has merits, I’m betting it does. If that ends up being correct, I hope the judge rules in favor of the musician. Orchestras are a business and they have to be held to the same standards as any other business.

  • Minnesota says:

    How much will be left after the lawyers are paid? There is more to this story than is being told.

  • MWnyc says:

    Norman, the “Full story here” link just goes back to the previous Slipped Disc post. Is that what you intended, or did you mean to link to some news story from another outlet?

    (No need to post this on SD, by the way; I just thought I’d give you a heads-up in case that link was an oversight of the kind I make all too often.)

  • Bruce says:

    But anyway, I will venture to guess (as I did on the previous post) that this lawsuit is a last resort, not a first. Seems much more likely that there was at least some amount of back-and-forth to the effect of “hey, you can’t just cancel this, I’ve been practicing since October/ sorry, we have to, and anyway the fine print says “subject to change or cancellation”/ can’t we find another date?” etc etc, rather than Ms. Mulcahy simply pretending everything was fine and then dropping this lawsuit on them out of the blue.

  • Sir David Geffen-Hall says:

    These jokes are more painful than any legal action

    I would gladly pay any poster $25 K to stop

    Please private message me for an application

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