Fired cellist’s friends picket opening concert
OrchestrasThe Nova Scotia Symphony will face a demonstration at its season opener tonight by friends and supporters of assistant principal cello Shimon Walt.
He has been fired after 47 years by music director Holly Mathieson.
A petition to reinstate him has collected 1,000 signatures and rising.
His wife Peggy says the orchestra has ‘stopped replying to letters from subscribers, supporters and donors asking them to reverse the decision to terminate him after 47 years without any severance.’
On what grounds was he terminated?
He’s not giving many details, but from a post he made on Facebook it sounds like he was not prepared and wasn’t following direction from the MD.
A conductor can use that as a gaslighting tool.
The Orchestra could save itself a lot of grief by giving an explanation. Reading between the lines of what little is online, there is a whiff of them thinking he is no longer up to the job. If that is the case, it’s a harsh call, but defensible. However if he has been let go without severance pay after so long a tenure, and given his clear importance to the entire music scene in Halifax, there is something very off. His website does not acknowledge his removal. It’s time both sides came clean about what is going on here.
Not all orchestras offer severance pay upon termination. It depends on what’s written in their musician’s contract.
A fine cellist and one of the orchestra’s pillars, it’s shocking that someone of his experience and contributions should be arbitrarily cast aside
“arbitrarily”?
Haven’t you heard? That’s what
sociopathsconductors do.I’ve seen that before.
Is there lead in the water out there? Because only a retard would fire one of the industry’s most renowned musicians. And after only 47 seasons? This terrorist conductor is worse than Hamas.
It’s spelled hummus
The firing of Shimon Walt is an outrage and should be reversed with an apology. He is highly regarded by fellow musicians and lovers of classical music, which suggests that the firing is based on personal animus rather than merit.
I am shocked, this gifted musician has been a pillar of the music scene and culture for almost half a century. I believe an explanation is owed to both Mr. Walt and the music community that supports him. I cry foul as it stands now.
I don’t know this situation in the slightest, but in the USA, firings occur for two reasons: musical and cause. Musical reasons usually require a lengthy notification period and chance to address the conductor’s dissatisfactions. A termination for such reasons can also be overturned by a players’ committee of the musician’s peers, depending on the language of the contract. The second reason, cause, is something management can do for insubordination, misbehavior, or inattention to duties. This too can be appealed, to an outside arbitrator. It would be helpful to know more about the circumstances. I hope the situation resolves.
Very odd that a relatively young conductor would embark on a career by getting a reputation for firing musicians. Holly is a lovely person, talented and has a great future ahead. There has to be more behind this, especially as the player has been removed without severance payments after such a long time playing. Even if something egregious had been done, surely a longstanding career would allow some sort of ‘warning’ etc. There is more to this than on the surface. What the orchestra must do is come clean, be honest and tell whats gone on to keep supporters onside.
None of you amateur detectives are as clever as you think. Dismissal procedures are delineated in detail in an orchestra’s bargaining agreement. The process occurs over many months and the musician has many opportunities to prove themselves. One hopes that after 47 seasons one might attain a degree of mastery over one’s ego, but this situation happens far too frequently. Bravo to Maestra Mathieson for undertaking this difficult process. A clean house is more liveable for all.
You have insider knowledge? Understand that there are decisions to be made and processes to be gone through; it’s the silence that creates the questions.
A process is one thing, part of the increasing bureaucracy of the music “business.” But somehow 47 years without severance just seems unjust. If the cellist was so terrible, why was he kept for so long???
I have been through that sort of thing as a bassist. It starts with being waylayed by the conductor telling you that you are sticking out like a sore thumb. Time passes and it escalates into gaslighting. It happened to others at the hands of the same conductor who had come on some 10 or 15 years before, developing a pattern. If you were in a union orchestra with a CBA, fight it.
Unless he committed a crime there cannot be a justification for firing him. The conductor didn’t what he said or he voiced disagreement about something musical. No 47 year veteran should ever be fired for political reasons. But an orchestra is the same as any other group of people so politics is a fact of life. Management should rectify the situation.
Usually, firing a tenured musician is a lengthy and extremely regulated process that must go through specific steps, one of which being granting an opportunity for the affected musician to fix whatever musical problems might be at stake. You can’t fire someone simply because you don’t like them. There has to be either gross insubordination, or the quality of their playing has to have degraded beneath acceptable musical standards. Judging from the response from the public and from his colleagues, which is rather unusual, I suspect there are no musical grounds for this decision. It’s quite possible that this is yet another move made by a power-hungry conductor wishing to assert themselves and making their musicians subservient. A terrible way to start a career, and one which will undoubtedly backfire at some point. The genuinely great musicians never allow themselves such lapses in judgment. Unfortunately, as long as we continue idolizing these figures, which in an overwhelming majority of cases contribute absolutely nothing to the musical output being produced — except playing the role of a pretty face for a given institution — we will continue fostering a culture in which such abuses are but inevitable.
If you go to Shimon Walt’s FB page and scroll down a bit, you can read his whole story.
After reading it, one question comes to mind: is age discrimination illegal in Canada, or is it perfectly fine?
The management of this orchestra should be ashamed of themselves for their cowardly and spineless response. I hope audiences respond with their feet and wallets.
After 47 years? Dreadful, disgusting, and insulting.