Are you a Georgia resident who feels that the state should increase funding for the arts? Follow the link below to send a personalized message your legislators. Thanks to the Georgia Arts Network for setting this up, and let's send a strong message that the arts are a crucial part of a great state!
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Opinion: Assessing Atlanta’s strengths, challenges
Posted: 12:00 a.m. Saturday, Feb. 14, 2015 @myajc.com

By Doug Hertz

But the arts deserve support and attention as well.

The Woodruff Arts Center has grown into the third-largest arts center in the U.S. and it continues to produce great art at the Alliance Theatre, the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and the High Museum of Art. But opportunities are limited and challenges are very real because the arts are almost entirely dependent on private support.

Today, the state of Georgia ranks 50th – dead last — among all states in support for the arts. Just a small infusion of taxpayer money would make a huge difference in assuring that the arts can continue to thrive, not only at the Woodruff Arts Center but across the entire arts community.

Every great city touts its quality of life in order to attract new investment. International investors and visitors, in particular, place a very high premium on the arts in their assessment of quality of life. Like transportation, green space and health care/research, the city and state need to invest in the arts to assure that Atlanta’s quality of life continues to measure up.

A native Atlantan, Doug Hertz is the chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Woodruff Arts Center. He is also president and CEO of United Distributors Inc.

February 4, 2015 | HAPPY 70TH ANNIVERSARY TO THE ASO AND JANE LITTLE

February 4, 2015, marks not only the 70th anniversary of the very first performance of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, but also Jane Little's 70th anniversary as a member of the ASO bass section. Just in case that wasn't a momentous enough occasion, February 2 was her birthday as well!
Our own Michael Kurth arranged a HAPPY BIRTHDAY in her honor like you've never heard before that we played at the beginning of the first rehearsal this week. Here's to Jane! Happy Birthday to the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra's very own Jane Little!
Please join us in thanking Jane for her inspiring dedication to the Orchestra.
Post by Atlanta Symphony Orchestra.
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Jane Little photo and bio found at ASO.org
Assistant Principal Bass Jane Little was a 1945 charter member of the original Atlanta Youth Symphony Orchestra, the forerunner of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. She joined after two years of studying bass in high school and has since played under all four of the Orchestra's music directors as well as guest conductors including Igor Stravinsky, Aaron Copland, Pierre Monteux, Leopold Stokowski, Sir John Barbirolli, and James Levine.

An Atlanta native, she attended the University of Georgia and studied for four years with the principal bass player of the Chicago Symphony. She was Principal Bass with the Theater of the Stars orchestra for 15 years, and has played extensively with regional ballet and opera companies, as well as in touring performances of the American Ballet Theatre, Covent Garden Ballet, and Boris Goldovsky Opera Theatre.

Ms. Little's instrument is a rare Carlo Giuseppi Testore bass (ca. 1705).
January 7, 2015 | ASO receives $1.25 million gift to endow one of eleven full-time musician positions
Many thanks to Sally and Carl Gable for their generous gift and for their belief in a world-class ASO!
Let's hope this generous gift inspires more giving from the Arts lovers and patrons of Atlanta.
This is great news to begin 2015!
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The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, which seeks to endow 11 full-time musician positions over the next four years at a cost of approximately $25 million, received a $1.25 million gift from an Atlanta couple, announced Wednesday.

The gift from longtime ASO patrons Sally and Carl Gable is an incipient one in the ASO’s drive to add 11 endowed full-time positions by the end of the 2017-18 season.

“We’re just committed to a vibrant, thriving future for the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra,” Sally Gable said on Thursday. “We’ve been going to concerts for 50 years, since we arrived in Atlanta in 1964, and we love the symphony and know and love (a number of) the members. I can’t imagine living without the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra.”

“I think everybody now is just pulling forward and looking forward to the future,” said Gable, who said she’d like to see the ensemble grow to 95 and return to touring internationally.
We are the 88 professional musicians who make up the internationally renowned, 27 Grammy award-winning Atlanta Symphony Orchestra.
We are cultural ambassadors proudly providing Atlanta and Georgia with musical performances of the highest artistic caliber.

The ATL Symphony Musicians have ratified a new four year agreement with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra management.
We are proud to have an agreement that includes a fixed complement of 88 musicians, steady pay increases and
a new health insurance policy that contains an employer contribution to an HSA.

We could not have weathered these difficult months without the incredible support from our donors and advocates.
We have felt the love from all our supporters here in the Atlanta area, as well as stretching across the USA and beyond,
and we look forward to everyone's continued support, for our work is certainly not done.

Please come to Symphony Hall to hear great symphonic music by your Atlanta Symphony Orchestra!
Donations go directly to the ASO Players' Association fund to help defray expenses related to the 2014 lockout,
and to assist with emergency hardship funding for our musicians, but are not tax deductible.
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For more information about upcoming concert events featuring the ATL Symphony Musicians
please visit the ATL Symphony Musicians Foundation web site  www.ATLSMFoundation.org. Donations to the ATL Symphony Musicians Foundation, a tax-exempt nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization, are used to produce concerts and community events which feature ATL Symphony Musicians. Donations to the Foundation are tax deductible under government guidelines.
Contact the ATL Symphony Musicians Foundation if you'd like to help produce a concert,
become a volunteer, be a concert sponsor, purchase tickets, and more.
The music is ongoing!
It is official! ATL Symphony Musicians Foundation has been granted tax-exempt status by the IRS.
Donations made to the Foundation are tax deductible under government guidelines.
Thank you for your gifts!
World's Favourite Orchestra 2014 @Bachtrack.com | WE VOTED ASO!  FOURTH PLACE FINISH!
Click here to view the latest results | Vote closes at 3pm GMT on Monday 6th October
Save Our Symphony Atlanta is a non-profit citizens advocacy group, dedicated to the preservation of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, in perpetuity. Please follow them and encourage all your friends who support the ATL Symphony Musicians to follow us as soon as possible. This is critically important!

Save Our Symphony Atlanta is a non-profit citizens advocacy group, dedicated to the preservation of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, in perpetuity. Our mission is to promote growth and expansion of the orchestra, and to maintain its status as one of Atlanta's great cultural treasures, and one of the nation's premier orchestras.

Follow SOSA on FACEBOOK
Follow SOSA on TWITTER
The ATL Symphony Musicians would like to thank the following musicians’ organizations for their support of our efforts through letters of support or direct donations. We have tried to include every group who has directly supported us, but letters and donations come in on a daily basis. If we’ve missed anyone, know that we will make the correction!

This outpouring of support from our colleagues in the symphonic industry has been overwhelming and humbling, and we would like to thank the International Conference of Symphony and Opera Musicians (ICSOM) for their initial Call To Action, without which this level of support would not have been possible. We could never thank you all enough or express our sincere gratitude.

Alabama Symphony Orchestra musicians
https://www.facebook.com/alabamasymphonyorchestramusicians
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra musicians
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Play-On-Baltimore-Symphony-Orchestra-BSO/101982446503852
Boston Symphony Orchestra musicians
Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra musicians
https://www.facebook.com/BuffaloPhilharmonicMusicians
Chicago Symphony Orchestra musicians
https://www.facebook.com/csomusicians
Cleveland Orchestra musicians
https://www.facebook.com/ClevelandOrchestraMusicians
Colorado Springs Philharmonic musicians
Dallas Symphony Orchestra musicians
https://www.facebook.com/dsomusicians
Detroit Symphony Orchestra musicians
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Detroit-Symphony-Orchestra-Musicians/133724713335209
Ft. Worth Symphony Orchestra musicians
Grand Rapids Symphony musicians
https://www.facebook.com/POMAGR
Hawaii Symphony Orchestra musicians
Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra musicians
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Musicians-of-the-Indianapolis-Symphony-Orchestra/317584335003157
Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra musicians
https://www.facebook.com/JSOMusicians
Kansas City Symphony musicians
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Musicians-of-the-Kansas-City-Symphony/108529652501299
Kennedy Center Opera Orchestra musicians
Los Angeles Philharmonic musicians
Louisville Symphony Orchestra musicians
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Friends-of-the-Orchestra-Musicians-of-Louisville/267689969939550
Metropolitan Opera Orchestra musicians
https://www.facebook.com/pages/MET-Orchestra-Musicians/133520823394986
Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra musicians
https://www.facebook.com/msomusicians
Minnesota Orchestra musicians
https://www.facebook.com/MusiciansOfTheMinnesotaOrchestra
Nashville Symphony Orchestra musicians
https://www.facebook.com/MusiciansOfTheNashvilleSymphony
National Symphony Orchestra musicians
https://www.facebook.com/NSOMusicians
New York City Ballet Orchestra musicians
https://www.facebook.com/pages/New-York-City-Ballet-Orchestra-Musicians/492550447446613
New York Philharmonic musicians
North Carolina Symphony musicians
https://www.facebook.com/NorthCarolinaSymphonyMusicians
Organization of Canadian Symphony Musicians (OCSM) Executive Board
https://www.facebook.com/ocsm.omosc
Oregon Symphony musicians
https://www.facebook.com/OSOMusicians
Philadelphia Orchestra musicians
https://www.facebook.com/pomusicians
Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra musicians
https://www.facebook.com/PSOMusicians
Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra musicians
https://www.facebook.com/musiciansrpo
St. Louis Symphony musicians
St. Paul Chamber Orchestra musicians
San Antonio Symphony musicians
https://www.facebook.com/sasmusicians
San Diego Symphony
San Francisco Ballet Orchestra musicians
San Francisco Opera Orchestra musicians
https://www.facebook.com/SanFranciscoOperaOrchestra
San Francisco Symphony musicians
https://www.facebook.com/MusiciansofSFS
Seattle Symphony Orchestra musicians
Symphoria musicians
Toronto Symphony Orchestra musicians
Utah Symphony musicians
https://www.facebook.com/musiciansutsym?ref=br_tf
*For more stories of support and gifts to the ATL Symphony Musicians from orchestras go to the ICSOM/AFM SUPPORT page in the navigation menu
Remarks to ASO Board of Directors and WAC Leadership

By Paul Murphy, President of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Players Association

November 17, 2014

Ladies and Gentlemen,

The tragically delayed Opening of the ASO’s 70th Season last week could not have been a more celebratory or exciting event -- two completely sold out concerts with our beloved Music Director and Chorus, excellent soloists, including the incomparable David Coucheron, and Beethoven’s 9th Symphony! The audience’s enthusiasm almost brought the house down. The mood and message could not have been more in contrast to that of the months that preceded it…perhaps the darkest hour for the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, whose house was almost brought down in a very different and rancorous way that I think we all realize could and should have been avoided.

I have been thinking these last few days how reminiscent our situation has been to the kind of “near miss” which many of us have experienced at some point in our lives -- a close call on the highway; narrowly averted danger to a child; recovery from a personal near death experience; or pulling back just before making a terribly wrong split-second decision. The moments immediately following such an event fill us with an overwhelming sense of relief, and then gratitude for what we have and almost, unthinkably, lost. We have been to that brink with the ASO. We almost lost something incredibly precious to each of us in this room, a source of entertainment and enlightenment for tens of thousands of music lovers of all ages, backgrounds and social standing that it has taken many decades to build.

We are grateful for you and for what we have, and know you share our hope for better days. We also know that that is not enough – now, or ever again! We all need to commit to making it better -- our individual and corporate fundraising, our marketing and programming of concert offerings and new revenue opportunities that will excite our public, fostering broad awareness of the value our ASO brings to our citizens and to the stature of Atlanta as a major metropolitan and cultural center, communication within every level of our organization, and, key to it all, the vital task of finding the successful, knowledgeable, dynamic leader with the experience to advocate for and support our art form, to be the ASO’s next CEO.

We are truly thrilled by the public showing of support for Atlanta having a great Symphony Orchestra, and by the knowledge that we can achieve more than we have let ourselves believe possible. It will take all of us -- working, questioning, and advocating together, while the Orchestra is making great music -- to bring forth from the depths of the sacrifice and struggle that every one of us in the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Players Association has experienced during the last two years this new day for the ASO .

Together we can be an Atlanta Symphony that will be an even better ambassador, and brighter cultural star shining on Atlanta and the Southeast.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

ATLANTA SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA PLAYERS’ ASSOCIATION,
ATLANTA SYMPHONY ORHCESTRA AND THE WOODRUFF ARTS CENTER
COMPLETE NEW FOUR-YEAR COLLECTIVE BARGAINING AGREEMENT

70TH Anniversary Season To Begin November 13 With
Music Director Robert Spano Conducting Orchestra and Chorus

The 70th anniversary season of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra will open on Thursday, November 13, after the Orchestra’s musicians and management came to terms on a new four-year collective bargaining agreement this week.

Robert Spano, Music Director of the ASO, will conduct the Orchestra and Chorus performing Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony and Mozart’s Violin Concerto No. 5 with David Coucheron on November 13 and 15.

The new agreement was reached Thursday after lengthy negotiation sessions between the musicians and management with mediators from the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Services. The agreement was approved by the Woodruff Arts Center’s Governing Board and ratified by the membership of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Players’ Association over the last two days.

“We are thrilled we have been able to reach agreement with the musicians,” said Virginia A. Hepner, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Woodruff Arts Center. “Over the last several difficult weeks of negotiations, both sides recognized that we all share the same goals and aspirations – we all want a world class orchestra that the musicians and city are proud of and one that has long-term financial stability. We believe this new agreement is one that will allow us to achieve those goals.”

“This agreement brings the restoration of a harmonious relationship within everyone's grasp based on work we must do together to restore missing positions in the Orchestra while stabilizing and advancing the financial position of the Woodruff Arts Center and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra,” said Paul Murphy, ASO Associate Principal Violist and President of the Musicians’ negotiating team.

The new agreement calls for a six percent pay increase for the musicians over the four years; participation by the musicians in a new high-deductible healthcare plan, which will include increased premium contributions by the musicians and additionally provides substantial savings to the ASO; an initial complement of 77 musicians in year one, a goal of 81 musicians in year two and a commitment to 84 musicians by the end of year three and 88 musicians by the end of year four.

“Both sides made significant concessions during these negotiations, and we are grateful for the musicians’ willingness to work with us to reach a new agreement,” Ms. Hepner said. “While completion of the agreement is wonderful news, the reality is that the hard work begins now. Together we must find new, compelling ways to engage the community to assure the support the Symphony needs. We must work together with Music Director Robert Spano and our musicians to get more people in Symphony Hall and more donors willing to support our extraordinary Orchestra. We are confident we can make that happen.”

“We have already seen proof of that support from the Board of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. Their commitment over the last few weeks to provide the Orchestra with additional, extraordinary financial support gave us important flexibility as we finalized the new agreement. The Board deserves the gratitude of everyone who loves the Orchestra.”

“We are grateful and humbled by the incredible outpouring of support displayed for the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra from our community as well as across the country and around the world. The unwavering support for the Musicians and the ASO as an institution by both Music Director Robert Spano and Donald Runnicles, Principal Guest Conductor of the ASO, never can be fully expressed in words, but we are grateful to have such inspiring artistic leaders both on and off the stage,” added Danny Laufer, ASO Associate Principal Cellist and Vice-President of the Musicians’ negotiating team.

“The Musicians especially appreciate WAC Chariman Doug Hertz’ personal efforts in the final days to bring this very difficult negotiation to a successful conclusion,” added Mr. Murphy.

Both Ms. Hepner and Mr. Murphy praised the work of Ms. Allison Beck, Acting Director of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, and Mr. Richard Giacolone, Commissioner of the FMCS.

“The mediation process was crucial in helping bring about this new agreement,” said Ms. Hepner. “We want to thank Ms. Beck and Mr. Giacolone for their tireless efforts during these last few weeks.”

# # #

Keep the Atlanta Symphony in the Major Leagues | October 16, 2014 at 9:08am

  • The ASO has over 100 recordings and has won 27 Grammy Awards, 2nd only to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.
  •  The ASO played for over 3 billion people in the opening ceremonies of the 1996 Olympic Games making it Cultural Ambassadors for the city of Atlanta.
  • The ARTS generate $300 million to Atlanta's economy each year.
  • The ASO musicians play for over a half million people every year. Our outreach programs reach a wide geographical and cultural audience.

3 Factors Indicate "Major League" Status

SALARY
  • The ASO currently is 18th in salary. 17 orchestras rank higher.
SIZE / COMPLEMENT
  •  The ASO musicians were cut from 95 musicians to 88 in 2012. Other major orchestras have between 95 - 106 musicians.
SEASON / WEEKS
  • In the 2012 lockout, the ASO Season was cut from 52 weeks to 42. This is a major loss of status among our peer orchestras in the USA.
  • With only 42 weeks in our season, we no longer play in July or August.
  • The concerts played during this time reached our most cultural, geographical and ethnically diverse audiences.
  • We no longer play 4th of July, National Broadcast of the MLK concert, National Black Arts Festival, annual New Year's Eve concert.

The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra should be restored to its previous status (2012) keeping it in the Major Leagues
and maintaining it as the "Cultural Jewel" not only of Atlanta, but also of the entire Southeast USA.
M A J O R - L E A G U E   P L A Y E R S ,   I N   T U N E   W I T H   O U R   C O M M U N I T Y