Exclusive: Chairman fires professional US orchestra an hour before concert

Exclusive: Chairman fires professional US orchestra an hour before concert

Orchestras

norman lebrecht

April 03, 2023

The Punta Gorda Symphony considered itself Charlotte County’s premier professional orchestra – until yesterday, when this happened.

Our report comes from one of the supplementary musicians:

The Punta Gorda Symphony in Florida was set to give their last concert of the season yesterday. While it was announced some time ago that the music director of ten years (Raffafele Ponti) would be leaving after this season, the Board had not communicated with the Players Committee regarding a replacement music director, only that they had hired someone. Seven days before the final concert, all musicians were asked to submit a video recording of substantial excerpts/solo pieces by Sunday, purportedly at the request of the newly hired mystery conductor. During the dress rehearsal on Sunday April 2, it was revealed to the orchestra (not by the Board) that the Board’s plan was actually to merge a nearby orchestra with Punta Gorda Symphony, effectively meaning that not only the conductor, but that all musicians would be let go at the conclusion of the concert that evening.

There was an indication by the conductor that he planned to address the audience regarding this situation. An hour before the performance, we were notified that the Chairman of the Board had cancelled the concert, and that we could retrieve our checks and leave the premises. Upon arrival at the concert hall, the local police were seen escorting the conductor off the property, and the venue’s security guards were blocking musicians from entering the hall. With an escort, we were allowed back on stage to retrieve our personal belongings. Several of the Board members that had shown up for the performance were totally unaware of the Chairman’s decision to cancel the performance. Many of these musicians have been playing with the orchestra for 10-20 years, and for it to end like this is unspeakable.

 

UPDATE:

Comments

  • Barry Guerrero says:

    What the . . . !

  • Peter San Diego says:

    Ye gods, that reads like a fever dream, not real life. I hope enough other board members exist who can resuscitate the organization.

    • Nick2 says:

      I suggest you look at the history of the final years of the New York City Opera. The Board Chairman quickly abandoned all pretense at collegiality and on her own initiative appointed Gerard Mortier and promised him an outrageous annual production budget. All without consultation with her fellow Board members. She then failed to make any donation towards the appointment! Not surprisingly without that promised budget Mortimer disappeared before his first scheduled season. City Opera had been near death before then but this and other ridiculous Board appointments quickly killed it!

  • Tiredofitall says:

    Is the chairman Elon Musk?

    I hope there is some legal avenue for the musicians.

    • Punto Exacto says:

      Yes, the legal avenue is called open auditions.

      What’s wrong with wanting a better orchestra and opening up auditions to get the best musicians?

      An open, free, transparent market is best for everyone trying to get a job, not just for those who last auditioned 20 years ago.

      • Michael says:

        Found the PGS board member

      • Dr. Nilo Fabbro says:

        Nothing wrong with having open auditions, it’s the manner in which this whole process was done. I believe it was because Maestro Ponti “ wouldn’t kiss the chairman’s ring”.

      • Tracy Holtrey says:

        The musicians were given less than a week to prepare, record, and submit a recorded audition. That is not sufficient notification and completely unprofessional seeing they had already, earlier in the season provided contracts to the Venice Symphony.

  • David K. Nelson says:

    What’s the sense of having a board at all if the chairman can just end it all at his (or her) say so? Even at a “real” for profit business the board should have more say.

    The potential for something like this exists elsewhere however, and maybe at many elsewheres.

    Symphony boards and hence chairmanships tend to be populated with major donors, and more and more that means major business leaders rather than inherited wealth. Their motivations for serving can range from sincere interest in the music and the organization, if you’re lucky, to collecting social brownie points and networking, if you’re typical. The art museum, the zoo, the hospital, — it’s all the same to them, any board will do.

    Bless their hearts I suppose. But a business man (or woman) suddenly serving on the board of an arts organization such as a symphony is encountering a world which to them seems topsy turvy. It is a business plan designed and destined to lose money, and make up the difference by begging. Every instinct would be to end it all, now. These are people who did not get where they are now by being good at begging and groveling.

    This reminds me a little bit about the fate of the Green Bay (Wisconsin) Symphony, which had a 100 year history. The chair of the Board just decided this was no way to run a business (which of course is quite correct: it isn’t). At least they were allowed to finish their season, and the conductor was not walked out the door by the jackboots.

    For a variety of very good legal and tax reasons a symphony orchestra is a business. So, it has a board and a chair. But in so many respects it is NOT a business that stuffing the board with successful business persons runs this risk.

    • Doug says:

      For a Rude insensitive Board Chair like that It’s not “bless their heart,” but “Damn Their Eyes!”

  • Charles says:

    There was no “musician’s committee”. We were told that we would be fired if we tried to form a musician’s committee. The videos were due Friday before the first rehearsal for the last concert. The musicians were given five days notice to make their recordings.

  • Paul Dawson says:

    I’m reminded of a line from Heinlein’s Stranger In A Strange Land: “I disappeared him!”

    It sounds like this chairman has “disappeared” the whole orchestra.

  • Joseph says:

    Well, it IS Florida.

    • Bone says:

      Enjoy your socialist utopia, pinko

      • trumpetherald says:

        That´s what fascists say,yeah….Followers of a stinking criminal draft dodging sissy who would have been grilled on the electric chair for treason 70 years ago,like the Rosenbergs.Rightly so. Riff raff always supports riff raff…1933 and 2023.

      • trumpetherald says:

        Just BTW,the majority of americans is way to stupid to know the meaning of socialism…More Bonehead than bone,anyway….

        • Herr Forkenspoon says:

          “americans is to stupid.” Punctuation, spelling, grammar.

          • Larry W says:

            Knife guy, Herr.

          • trumpetherald says:

            Americans are too stupid,yes….My eyesight is quite bad, and” Auto Correct”is creating havoc….

          • Hugo Preuß says:

            Wow, to transform “the majority of americans is way to [sic] stupid” to “americans is to stupid” is quite a malicious achievement! The excitement of wilfully wrong quotations.

      • Whosknockin says:

        Enjoy your fascist state, Bone.

        • Bone says:

          I do! I leave my doors unlocked and never feel compelled to carry for safety – although I could without permit. Own my house, plenty in the bank, and good schools with low millage. Life is great! Make sure you stay away!

    • M Miller says:

      Florida’s got nothing to do with it, buddy… this could happen anywhere.

  • Samach says:

    What could “more challenging programming” possibly mean in this context, surely it can’t mean that the good citizens of Punta Gorda (93% white, 51% over 65) are clamoring for more Florence Price or Pierre Boulez, or has the orchestra been playing the Pachelbel Canon season after season (I can’t see the retirees of Fat Point objecting), or is it just board-speak mumble jumble to justify firing half the musicians?

  • Mecky Messer says:

    And literally nobody in florida will ever know this “prestigious” ensemble ever existed.

    Literally a Mariachi band is more relevant than this stuff nowadays…

    • Paul Dawson says:

      I guess we can blame the likes of you for the OED’s pronouncement that “literally” no longer means “literally”, literally.

    • Bone says:

      That is pretty funny, actually.
      Folks in my area probably listen to a lot more mariachi than classical music judging by the parking lots of Mexican restaurants.

      • trumpetherald says:

        Then you should post on a mariachi website,which matches the musicial appreciation level of Trumptards better,btw.

        • Bone says:

          I don’t particularly like mariachi (and haven’t played since I’m a non-trumpetard), but I LOVE salsa and try and make time whenever I’m available to play.

        • Aaron Blackham says:

          Bring a democrat does NOT give you license to post xenophobic drivel and a slur on top of that (the word you attached to “Trump”). The fact that no one else on here has even called you out on this yet is despicable. Keep your disgusting thoughts to yourself.

      • Barry Guerrero says:

        I like Mexican restaurants – good ones. I don’t get to one expecting to hear a symphony orchestra concert. It’s called context.

        • Bone says:

          Would be kinda cool if you went to a Mexican restaurant and the band started belting out some chamber music, especially something ultra-modern like Ferneyhough LOL

    • Miv Tucker says:

      To quote Tom Lehrer:
      The mariachis would serenade
      And they would not shut up till they were paid…
      (In Old Mexico)

    • Madeleine Richardson says:

      Only in a cultural desert.

    • Herr Forkenspoon says:

      What room were you in before you wandered into this one? If Classical music, i.e. “this stuff,’ is not relevant, why are you here?

  • Steffen says:

    Your “update” is not accurate – they received that notice about re-auditioning a week ago.

    The canceled concert and all of this just occurred yesterday (Sunday)

  • L J Rogers says:

    Totally low move. Hard to want to support the new group coming in. They couldn’t at least allow the last performance? Amazingly poor leadership.

  • SlippedChat says:

    Welcome to the world of American labor law, where all things are possible.

  • M Miller says:

    What was the role of the administrative staff of the orchestra during these last few weeks? Surely they should have been able to make this a smoother process than it ended up being…

  • TRVLA says:

    And this, my friends, is why there’s a musicians’ union.

    • Bratschegirl442 says:

      In Florida, not really. Florida is a “right to work” state. All orchestras I played in in Florida didn’t allow unionisation.

      • florida man says:

        As a fellow violist I assure you this is not true. Plenty of union orchestras in the state, including the largest one, the Florida Orchestra. As far as I understand, Punta Gorda were working on getting to the point of becoming a union group.

        • PaulD says:

          Idaho is a work at will, right-to-work state. Musicians of the Boise Philharmonic voted to unionize several years ago.

      • Larry says:

        “Right to work’ does not mean that you can’t have a union, only that you can not be required to join a union to take a job if offered.

  • Tex says:

    Florida man stops concert, kills entire orchestra

  • Tom says:

    Welcome to the US of A. This wouldn’t have happened in a civilized country.

    • Madeleine Richardson says:

      You would have demonstrations in some countries. When the Dutch government wanted to cut arts subsidies some years ago hundreds of thousands took to the streets and The Netherlands is a small country.

  • Andy says:

    You can easily create another board and slap by-laws together for another orchestra – it could be any size from chamber to your current size. It’s not that difficult to create another non-profit.

    • Laura says:

      Creating a new non-profit. I’m not from there, but I’m guessing that in a town the size of Punta Gorda there are very few people with deep enough pockets (and sufficient interest in classical music) to fund a professional symphony who were not already on the board. Lining up new donors is the real problem….along with a new venue, because it is likely that the old Board has booked the venue into the future for orchestral concerts.

  • Plush says:

    Oh, you want to play a concert??

    You’re fired.

  • Rosie says:

    There’s an article in The Daily Sun of Port Charlotte, but I was unable to read past the first sentence without paying for a subscription. It suggests that the audience was told the concert was canceled due to “an alleged threat” made at a rehearsal.

    You don’t say.

    • Tracy Holtrey says:

      Correct. The board (chairman) alleged that there were statements made that they viewed as physical threats so they called the police, had the musicians escorted to the parking lot after giving them their check and allowing them to collect their belongings and canceled the concert. It was to keep the maestro from telling the audience what they were doing.

  • Margaret Koscielny says:

    As a resident of Florida, I am appalled that the Fascism has spread to music! What a heavy handed way to treat an organization of musicians. Surely, there should be some recourse for the musicians?

  • MICHAEL L CONLAN says:

    Yet another news story beginning with that plaintive phrase: “A Florida man….”

  • Dr. Nilo Fabbro says:

    What a sad day for music in Charlotte County. Ask any music teacher in our school system about Maestro Ponti and they will tell you that he has rejuvenated music in our schools. He has spent countless hours, with our teachers ,etc.on a volunteer basis. No pay! For the Chairman of the Board to say that “ the symphony is a business and is losing money in recent years with empty seats “, is the fault of Maestro Ponti is nonsense. The Symphony played to sold out audiences prior to the Coronavirus outbreak.

  • Joel Lazar says:

    Not impossible in the provinces, where leadership of arts organizations are often serial oligarchies.

  • Karen says:

    This is absolutely wrong, rude, and unfair to the orchestra members and patrons alike! Plus it is insulting to all musicians.

  • Patricia says:

    Very disappointed the way situation was handled. Such a lack of class.

  • John Public says:

    Lets not Kid ourselves Its a DeSantis power play. He put the word out that he wants an all Republican orchestra with no LGBTQ members . The Chairman and all the libraries have to cow tow to him. Its 2023 not 1938.

  • Donn Rutkoff says:

    Way too many ridiculous political posts. Too many wild generalisations.
    Orchestras come and go. Impresarios come and go. Remember them? Ed Sullivan could make or break a troupe. That’s life. If a musician thinks the job is guaranteed, sorry, it isn’t.

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