Philly musicians go ‘reluctantly’ on tour
NewsPress release by Philadelphia Orchestra musicians:
PHILADELPHIA—Today, Philadelphia Orchestra union musicians boarded the buses for their scheduled North Carolina tour “under protest,” after contract negotiations stalled out on Monday. Members of the Orchestra gave management the generous assurance that they’d avoid striking this week’s tour out of respect for the Orchestra’s hosts in North Carolina. Musicians have gotten no good faith in return from management, which continues to stall on key bargaining points around fair compensation, retirement benefits, and cost of living pay increases.
Frustration among musicians is mounting as public tax filings for fiscal years ending 2019 through 2022 show that pay for the CEO of the Philadelphia Orchestra Kimmel Center Inc. ballooned 111%, while Orchestra musicians made sacrifices and took pay cuts totaling $4.6 million to buoy the ensemble through the COVID pandemic in that time period.
Carol Jantsch, principal tuba for the Philadelphia Orchestra since 2006, spoke specifically to the need for pay equity for substitute musicians:
“In order to make music at the highest level, we rely a good deal on our substitute musicians, freelance musicians who are paid per service. Since the orchestra is currently 15% understaffed, we rely upon substitutes now more than ever to make up the difference.
For over a decade now, management has paid a lower rate for substitute musicians, and this practice is unconscionable. These are our friends and colleagues. They play the same notes, and they deserve the same paycheck.”
“out of respect for the Orchestra’s hosts in North Carolina”
If your hosts in North Carolina respected *you*, they would not expect you to cross your own picket line.
Can you imagine a film festival demanding actors to show up during the current strike?
Odd that patrons in Philadelphia get a worse deal than audiences in North Carolina.
There is currently no picket line to cross since they are not on strike.
Zayin, there is no strike just yet. The musicians have authorized their negotiating committee to call a strike without any additional vote from the membership. This is typical in tense negotiations like this one, and enables the committee to move quickly for more leverage. So, no picket lines at the moment.
There’s no picket line to cross yet – the musicians are not on strike. They are performing on the Carolina Performing Arts series – an organization that was hit extra hard by the pandemic. The 23/24 season is their first full in-person season since the shutdown and Philly is opening the season with two performances. I respect the musicians for going forward with the tour to avoid causing further harm to CPA.
Clearly the orchestra’s musicians, with their annual $150K current pay minimum, are not really expecially serious about trying to get even higher salaries; if they were, they wouldn’t be going on this tour.
I have a book that may interest you…
OMG!!!!! Brilliant!
Indeed: orchestral musicians were treated SO well under the Soviet system…
Ich bin nicht ein Russischer, komrad
Marx‘ ‚Capital‘ is a worldwide recognized and respected major work in political science and economics. Used in many elite universities in the west as standard material in the curriculum.
Not to be mistaken with his ‚Communist Manifest‘, which is not a scientific analysis like ‚Das Kapital‘ but more like a utopian essay.
Not that that would stop the brainwashed McCarthyian dogs (brothers of the Pawlowian dogs) to bark always as soon as someone says „Marx“.
„Did anybody say „Jehova“?“
Unfortunately, regardless of what kind of “work” you do, it all boils down to putting food on the table and paying all those damned bills! Such is LIFE!
Offering the same rate to substitutes as to the regulars is a bad idea and is based on the Marxist notion that they’re putting in the same amount of labor so they deserve the same compensation. Ms Jantsch plays a lot fewer notes per concert than a full-time section double bassist – by that measure it’s obvious who should be paid more. What this doesn’t take into account is the crucial distinction that their human capital is less than that of regulars – otherwise they wouldn’t be subbing, they’d be members. While this comment is likely to attract vitriol, the truth is such. (‘Well I know so many subs that play even better than full-time members! My friend so-and-so was a soloist before they were subbing here’ That’s nice, but not rule of thumb.) Secondly, why increase costs to the PO in this particular regard when you don’t have to? Making subs (or any small group) into a more powerful constituency within a larger group is usually an unwise strategy.
The conductor plays zero notes, yet gets paid the most of all.
Your comment betrays your inexperience, my friend.
That’s adorable, Vera. Except the conductor knows more notes in the score than anyone on stage and has the most responsibility and influence on the quality of the performance.
I’m delighted to see that there’s so many thumbs up indicating broad agreement that subs in Philly are just as good as regulars according to y’all. Heck, why listen to Philadelphia Orchestra when a pickup orchestra of the best Philly freelancers would be just as marvelous!
If a musician were to be paid by the note Art Tatum would have earned more than the Beatles,Karajan,louis Armstrong and Chopin combined.
Asking for equal pay is subscribing to a labor theory of value? That’s a stretch
The point is that management is using subs instead of full time musicians because they cost less. The subs are regulars and simply paid less because of their classification. It seems if management could, they would field an orchestra entirely of subs to save money.
They should get base pay for the PO, I would think. I subbed many times for several major symphony orchestras. Though I played the part that the section player would have paid, I didn’t expect to get that players salary for that week. Thats fine, I can’t see paying them below the orchestra’s base pay. She’s a 100% right!
Management: 1. Union: 0.
Talk about folding before you even go on strike.
Thank you Carol for speaking about this. Subs in Philly are top notch. Finalists in previous auditions and winners of substitute auditions. Much higher level than the sun pool in other orchestras. They deserve equal pay.
I live in NC. Tix are now BOGO, so the message is getting out. I’m not going.
Hmmm…wish I lived closer to NC
Both my husband and I hold graduate degrees in music. He is a very successful professional musician. What the general public and orchestra management do not seem to realize is the hours upon hours musicians put in at home practicing to sustain that perfection. Even on overnight get-a-ways
he brings along his mouthpiece to keep the lip in shape. On vacations, he brings along the trumpet with the practice mute.
The Philadelphia Orchestra is one of, if not THE premier orchestra in America. When a country loses their arts, they lose their humanity.
Nobody doubts the hours of hard work that musicians put in or how good the P.O. musicians are. But that doesn’t change the economic realities faced by the Orchestra in a tough market for a major orchestra. (I’ve gone into the reasons why it’s a tough market in past posts.)
Considering they almost shut down just a few years ago and are generously paid, this is nonsensicle for them to strike. Eventually, they will go out.
I’ll admit the salary increase they’re after seems a little absurd. They want such a large raise they’d likely bankrupt themselves if they got it. Chicago is accepting 3% per year for 3 years. And Philly is a VERY affordable place compared with some of the locales of the “peer” orchestras they’re allegedly chasing (Cleveland excepted). That being said, if I remember correctly the previous financial woes were somewhat illegitimate. They had $140 mil in the endowment at the time, no debt, and a budget shortfall that management “cleverly” rectified without touching the endowment.
There’s a lot more they’re asking for. I’ve only read about loose descriptions of a “draconian” code of conduct, unfair sub wages, and problematic pension and leave provisions. I’m sure there’s more on the table that’s not glamorous enough for the media.
It’s not necessarily nonsense for them to strike, though they’d maybe do well to appear less money-hungry and more concerned with their working conditions.
“…CEO of the Philadelphia Orchestra Kimmel Center Inc. ballooned 111%, while Orchestra musicians made sacrifices and took pay cuts totaling $4.6 million..” I hope thats not the same CEO who steered them into bankruptcy.