*FOUR YEAR CONTRACT RATIFIED*
Donations go directly to the ASO Players' Association fund to help defray expenses related to the lockout,
and to assist with emergency hardship funding for our musicians, but are not tax deductible.
and to assist with emergency hardship funding for our musicians, but are not tax deductible.
For 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 pending tax exempt 501(c)(3) status organization,
are used to help produce concerts and community events which feature the ATL Symphony Musicians. Once our application to the IRS is approved, donations to the Foundation are tax-exempt 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!
web site www.ATLSMFoundation.org. Donations to the ATL Symphony Musicians Foundation, a pending tax exempt 501(c)(3) status organization,
are used to help produce concerts and community events which feature the ATL Symphony Musicians. Once our application to the IRS is approved, donations to the Foundation are tax-exempt 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!
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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.
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.”
# # #
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.”
# # #
ASO on verge of labor contract | November 8, 2014
Musicians reach tentative deal after 10 months of talks.
By Howard Pousner hpousner@ajc.com
After 10 months of discordant contract negotiations between Atlanta Symphony Orchestra management and musicians, including a two-month player lockout, resolution is at hand.
The Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, which restarted stalled talks a month ago, released a statement late Friday afternoon announcing a tentative accord between the two sides.
“The parties have been faced with complex issues and some very tough choices, which they were dedicated to resolving,” said FMCS acting director Allison Beck. “This tentative agreement will help ensure the continuing viability of one of the premier cultural institutions of the South.”
Concerts are likely to resume Nov. 20-23.
Though the statement did not provide details of the four-year pact, a source close to the negotiations confirmed that the sides compromised on the biggest issue, the size of the orchestra. The source did not want to be identified because terms are pending approval.
Assuming both sides OK the contract, the ASO, which was trimmed from 95 to 88 full-time players in the 2012 collective bargaining agreement, will start the delayed 70th anniversary season with the 77 remaining musicians.
That would be the contracted number for the second year, 2015-16, as well, but management would have the goal of raising the “complement” to 81 full-time players. The administration would contractually commit to 84 full-time positions by the end of 2016-17 and a minimum of 88 in the fourth and final year.
When the second musician lockout in two years began on Sept. 7, the musicians had proposed a complement of 84 in year one, rising to 86, 88 and 89 in subsequent years.
Without committing to specific numbers, management had proposed a unique arrangement before the lockout in which it would negotiate with music director Robert Spano and musician representatives on whether and how individual musician positions would be filled as they became open. In cases where there was not a consensus, the administration would have had the final say.
Pointing out that fixed complements are set in the contract of every major American orchestra, the musicians wanted no part of that.
Musicians reach tentative deal after 10 months of talks.
By Howard Pousner hpousner@ajc.com
After 10 months of discordant contract negotiations between Atlanta Symphony Orchestra management and musicians, including a two-month player lockout, resolution is at hand.
The Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, which restarted stalled talks a month ago, released a statement late Friday afternoon announcing a tentative accord between the two sides.
“The parties have been faced with complex issues and some very tough choices, which they were dedicated to resolving,” said FMCS acting director Allison Beck. “This tentative agreement will help ensure the continuing viability of one of the premier cultural institutions of the South.”
Concerts are likely to resume Nov. 20-23.
Though the statement did not provide details of the four-year pact, a source close to the negotiations confirmed that the sides compromised on the biggest issue, the size of the orchestra. The source did not want to be identified because terms are pending approval.
Assuming both sides OK the contract, the ASO, which was trimmed from 95 to 88 full-time players in the 2012 collective bargaining agreement, will start the delayed 70th anniversary season with the 77 remaining musicians.
That would be the contracted number for the second year, 2015-16, as well, but management would have the goal of raising the “complement” to 81 full-time players. The administration would contractually commit to 84 full-time positions by the end of 2016-17 and a minimum of 88 in the fourth and final year.
When the second musician lockout in two years began on Sept. 7, the musicians had proposed a complement of 84 in year one, rising to 86, 88 and 89 in subsequent years.
Without committing to specific numbers, management had proposed a unique arrangement before the lockout in which it would negotiate with music director Robert Spano and musician representatives on whether and how individual musician positions would be filled as they became open. In cases where there was not a consensus, the administration would have had the final say.
Pointing out that fixed complements are set in the contract of every major American orchestra, the musicians wanted no part of that.
Tentative Agreement comes to a Vote | November 7, 2014
Good evening to all of our wonderful supporters. We wanted to update you on today's events.
Out of respect for the voting procedure, we will allow the Musicians to carefully consider the tentative agreement between WAC/ASO management and the ASOPA committee, and we will report the outcome of the vote tomorrow afternoon. Thanks to you all.
Good evening to all of our wonderful supporters. We wanted to update you on today's events.
Out of respect for the voting procedure, we will allow the Musicians to carefully consider the tentative agreement between WAC/ASO management and the ASOPA committee, and we will report the outcome of the vote tomorrow afternoon. Thanks to you all.
If the two sides come to an agreement, they will have to work together to improve morale, recruit new musicians, revive dwindling ticket sales and fundraising, and reduce the orchestra’s deficit. During the last round of negotiations, Tom Kilpatrick, WAC’s attorney and lead negotiator, assured musicians that management would begin to undertake a major fundraising campaign to create endowed chairs in an attempt to build the orchestra up to 90 players.
Many of the ASO’s musicians are dispersed around the country. Since the lockout, leading orchestras such as the New York Philharmonic, the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, D.C., and the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra have offered the locked-out ASO players part-time gigs to supplement their income. The ASO’s principal flute, Christina Smith, has just ended a European tour with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.
“Now begins the task of calling all our musicians home — the ones that have been playing with this orchestra and that orchestra around the country,” said Jones. “The orchestra has already been partly dismantled and it’s going to be quite a struggle to build it back.”
Many of the ASO’s musicians are dispersed around the country. Since the lockout, leading orchestras such as the New York Philharmonic, the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, D.C., and the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra have offered the locked-out ASO players part-time gigs to supplement their income. The ASO’s principal flute, Christina Smith, has just ended a European tour with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.
“Now begins the task of calling all our musicians home — the ones that have been playing with this orchestra and that orchestra around the country,” said Jones. “The orchestra has already been partly dismantled and it’s going to be quite a struggle to build it back.”
"Another crossroads in Atlanta Symphony negotiations comes..." --Howard Pousner - The Atlanta Journal-Constitution | November 4, 2014
As they approach a negotiating session with a federal mediator on Wednesday, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra management and players are closer to a deal than they have been during a two-month musician lockout or in eight months of talks that preceded it.
The question, with a tremendous amount riding on it, is if the two sides are close enough to finally reach accord on a collective bargaining agreement.
If they can, the music will return on Nov. 13 and 15 with maestro Robert Spano leading the orchestra and ASO chorus in Vaughan Williams’ “A Sea Symphony.”
If they can’t, expect additional cancellations on top of the eight concerts management called off in late September that would have launched the 70th anniversary season.
There has been little cause for optimism in this extended, ugly dispute that has commanded national and international media attention. But the fact that the two sides are preparing to talk — through U.S. Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service mediator Richard Giacolone — can only be taken as positive.
+ Another crossroads in Atlanta Symphony negotiations comes Wednesday photo
Paul Murphy, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra associate principal viola and president of the ASO Players’ Association. CONTRIBUTED BY ASO
The negotiating team for the ASO and its parent nonprofit the Woodruff Arts Center (WAC) made a proposal on Oct. 24, to which the musicians countered Oct. 27. Management, which declined comment for this story as part of a news blackout requested by the mediator, didn’t outright reject it.
In fact, after further consideration late last week, it believed there was enough of a glimmer of hope to ask Giacolone, whom both sides praise for making progress in the imbroglio, to return to Atlanta and resume mediation. The musicians are primed to receive an updated offer, knowing that differences will remain.
The thorniest issue is the size of the orchestra going forward. The musicians’ full-time ranks were trimmed from 95 to 88 and salaries cut by an average of 15 percent in 2012 negotiations that led to a one-month lockout. When the ASO ran up its 12th consecutive year of deficits in fiscal 2014 (finishing $2 million in the red), leadership sought additional trims to the “complement.”
In its most recent proposal, management held that the number of full-time musicians for the 2014-15 season should be cut from 88 to the 76 players who remain (after defections, retirements and deaths). It said it would launch a major fund-raising campaign to endow musician chairs with the goal to rebuild the size of the orchestra up to as many as 90 players. That pledge, however, was not promised as part of the proposed four-year contract.
The ASO Players’ Association countered with a proposal of starting with 77 players and increasing the ranks incrementally to a minimum of 88 by the end of the 2017-18 season. The musicians are determined that required positions for the final two years be included in the contract.
“The issue of complement is and has been contractual for decades, just as a fixed complement is for every major American orchestra in their respective contracts,” Players’ Association president Paul Murphy said in an email to the AJC. “We are asking nothing except to retain our fixed complement of 88 in the contract and ask for best efforts to exceed that number as we try and climb back to our long-standing complement of 95 musicians.”
The musicians have said repeatedly throughout negotiations that further cuts to their ranks, requiring extensive use of part-time and fill-in players, would be a major setback to the sound of the 27-time Grammy-winning orchestra.
Richard Deane, who is playing this season for the New York Philharmonic as associate principal horn while officially on leave from the ASO, attempted to explain what’s at stake for his Atlanta colleagues. “We are a group, and the group is the thing,” Deane said. “We create something where the whole is so much greater than the sum of the parts. Maintaining the group, that’s where the magic is, that’s where Robert Spano (works his) genius.”
Pay is the other issue still to be resolved. Management has not changed its offer of a graduated 4.5 percent raise over the four years. The musicians have moved from proposing a graduated 15 percent raise to one closer to 10 percent.
In a statement released last Friday, the Players’ Association negotiating committee noted, “Every aspect of the Musicians’ proposal provides significant savings for the WAC/ASO, while keeping (the orchestra) on a narrow path toward desperately needed restoration.”
If management believed that the numbers in the players’ last proposal would lead to a balanced budget, Atlantans might already be celebrating the return of the city’s largest arts institution.
Instead, talks resume Wednesday — and continue Thursday if needed — in yet another stab at finding a shared path forward.
“We’re all just so hopeful for consensus,” Deane said. “I couldn’t even begin to hazard a guess about what will happen. Every turn seems like such a surprise.”
As they approach a negotiating session with a federal mediator on Wednesday, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra management and players are closer to a deal than they have been during a two-month musician lockout or in eight months of talks that preceded it.
The question, with a tremendous amount riding on it, is if the two sides are close enough to finally reach accord on a collective bargaining agreement.
If they can, the music will return on Nov. 13 and 15 with maestro Robert Spano leading the orchestra and ASO chorus in Vaughan Williams’ “A Sea Symphony.”
If they can’t, expect additional cancellations on top of the eight concerts management called off in late September that would have launched the 70th anniversary season.
There has been little cause for optimism in this extended, ugly dispute that has commanded national and international media attention. But the fact that the two sides are preparing to talk — through U.S. Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service mediator Richard Giacolone — can only be taken as positive.
+ Another crossroads in Atlanta Symphony negotiations comes Wednesday photo
Paul Murphy, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra associate principal viola and president of the ASO Players’ Association. CONTRIBUTED BY ASO
The negotiating team for the ASO and its parent nonprofit the Woodruff Arts Center (WAC) made a proposal on Oct. 24, to which the musicians countered Oct. 27. Management, which declined comment for this story as part of a news blackout requested by the mediator, didn’t outright reject it.
In fact, after further consideration late last week, it believed there was enough of a glimmer of hope to ask Giacolone, whom both sides praise for making progress in the imbroglio, to return to Atlanta and resume mediation. The musicians are primed to receive an updated offer, knowing that differences will remain.
The thorniest issue is the size of the orchestra going forward. The musicians’ full-time ranks were trimmed from 95 to 88 and salaries cut by an average of 15 percent in 2012 negotiations that led to a one-month lockout. When the ASO ran up its 12th consecutive year of deficits in fiscal 2014 (finishing $2 million in the red), leadership sought additional trims to the “complement.”
In its most recent proposal, management held that the number of full-time musicians for the 2014-15 season should be cut from 88 to the 76 players who remain (after defections, retirements and deaths). It said it would launch a major fund-raising campaign to endow musician chairs with the goal to rebuild the size of the orchestra up to as many as 90 players. That pledge, however, was not promised as part of the proposed four-year contract.
The ASO Players’ Association countered with a proposal of starting with 77 players and increasing the ranks incrementally to a minimum of 88 by the end of the 2017-18 season. The musicians are determined that required positions for the final two years be included in the contract.
“The issue of complement is and has been contractual for decades, just as a fixed complement is for every major American orchestra in their respective contracts,” Players’ Association president Paul Murphy said in an email to the AJC. “We are asking nothing except to retain our fixed complement of 88 in the contract and ask for best efforts to exceed that number as we try and climb back to our long-standing complement of 95 musicians.”
The musicians have said repeatedly throughout negotiations that further cuts to their ranks, requiring extensive use of part-time and fill-in players, would be a major setback to the sound of the 27-time Grammy-winning orchestra.
Richard Deane, who is playing this season for the New York Philharmonic as associate principal horn while officially on leave from the ASO, attempted to explain what’s at stake for his Atlanta colleagues. “We are a group, and the group is the thing,” Deane said. “We create something where the whole is so much greater than the sum of the parts. Maintaining the group, that’s where the magic is, that’s where Robert Spano (works his) genius.”
Pay is the other issue still to be resolved. Management has not changed its offer of a graduated 4.5 percent raise over the four years. The musicians have moved from proposing a graduated 15 percent raise to one closer to 10 percent.
In a statement released last Friday, the Players’ Association negotiating committee noted, “Every aspect of the Musicians’ proposal provides significant savings for the WAC/ASO, while keeping (the orchestra) on a narrow path toward desperately needed restoration.”
If management believed that the numbers in the players’ last proposal would lead to a balanced budget, Atlantans might already be celebrating the return of the city’s largest arts institution.
Instead, talks resume Wednesday — and continue Thursday if needed — in yet another stab at finding a shared path forward.
“We’re all just so hopeful for consensus,” Deane said. “I couldn’t even begin to hazard a guess about what will happen. Every turn seems like such a surprise.”
PRESS RELEASE
ELECT TO TREAT ATLANTA TO ITS SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA BY PUTTING IT BACK ON STAGE | Atlanta, GA, October 31, 2014
Four days ago, the Musicians made a new proposal to the Woodruff Arts Center that balances the stated needs of the WAC/ASO leadership while meeting the need to ensure the survival of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. The orchestra has been in a world of hurt since the deep salary and benefit cuts of 2012, and there are numerous losses within the ranks needed to produce the ASO’s programs with the sound that made the Orchestra famous and won Atlanta 27 Grammy awards.
Every aspect of the Musicians’ proposal provides significant savings for the WAC/ASO, while keeping it on a narrow path toward desperately needed restoration. The ASO has had up to 95 Musicians, and has been cut back to 76, even though the current contract calls for 88 players. The Musicians temporarily gave up positions, and now need to replace them. The Musicians’ proposal embodies flexibility and true willingness to reach an agreement, replacing the positions gradually over time. Notable aspects include:
· An extended stabilization period – sought by the WAC/ASO management – offering to maintain the current complement size of 77 for the duration of the first year, and flexibility in arriving at a guaranteed complement number of 88 Musicians by the end of the fourth year.
· No individual Musician gains a penny in their fight to keep what the ASO and every other major orchestra in the United States and the world has: a fixed minimum number of musicians large enough to perform the music of a full symphony orchestra.
· A tentative agreement regarding healthcare involves the musicians offering to move to a high deductible plan – a major change from the current health insurance plan – ensuring annual savings of over a quarter of a million dollars for the WAC.
· No agreement has been reached on the modest incremental salary increases that the Musicians proposed. If agreed, Musician salaries would still not reach pre-2012 levels by the end of the four-year contract in 2018.
Having addressed the stated needs of the Woodruff Arts Center to continue the stabilization period begun in 2012, the ATL Symphony Musicians call on the WAC to accept their latest offer, end the lockout of the musicians, and put the award-winning Atlanta Symphony Orchestra back on stage for its 70th anniversary season.
Contact:
Paul Murphy, President ASOPA
pmurf@me.com
Daniel Laufer, Vice President ASOPA
LauferASO@aol.com
Jessica Oudin
JSOudin@gmail.com
Facebook: ATL Symphony Musicians
Twitter: @ATLSymMusicians
www.atlsymphonymusicians.com
ELECT TO TREAT ATLANTA TO ITS SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA BY PUTTING IT BACK ON STAGE | Atlanta, GA, October 31, 2014
Four days ago, the Musicians made a new proposal to the Woodruff Arts Center that balances the stated needs of the WAC/ASO leadership while meeting the need to ensure the survival of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. The orchestra has been in a world of hurt since the deep salary and benefit cuts of 2012, and there are numerous losses within the ranks needed to produce the ASO’s programs with the sound that made the Orchestra famous and won Atlanta 27 Grammy awards.
Every aspect of the Musicians’ proposal provides significant savings for the WAC/ASO, while keeping it on a narrow path toward desperately needed restoration. The ASO has had up to 95 Musicians, and has been cut back to 76, even though the current contract calls for 88 players. The Musicians temporarily gave up positions, and now need to replace them. The Musicians’ proposal embodies flexibility and true willingness to reach an agreement, replacing the positions gradually over time. Notable aspects include:
· An extended stabilization period – sought by the WAC/ASO management – offering to maintain the current complement size of 77 for the duration of the first year, and flexibility in arriving at a guaranteed complement number of 88 Musicians by the end of the fourth year.
· No individual Musician gains a penny in their fight to keep what the ASO and every other major orchestra in the United States and the world has: a fixed minimum number of musicians large enough to perform the music of a full symphony orchestra.
· A tentative agreement regarding healthcare involves the musicians offering to move to a high deductible plan – a major change from the current health insurance plan – ensuring annual savings of over a quarter of a million dollars for the WAC.
· No agreement has been reached on the modest incremental salary increases that the Musicians proposed. If agreed, Musician salaries would still not reach pre-2012 levels by the end of the four-year contract in 2018.
Having addressed the stated needs of the Woodruff Arts Center to continue the stabilization period begun in 2012, the ATL Symphony Musicians call on the WAC to accept their latest offer, end the lockout of the musicians, and put the award-winning Atlanta Symphony Orchestra back on stage for its 70th anniversary season.
Contact:
Paul Murphy, President ASOPA
pmurf@me.com
Daniel Laufer, Vice President ASOPA
LauferASO@aol.com
Jessica Oudin
JSOudin@gmail.com
Facebook: ATL Symphony Musicians
Twitter: @ATLSymMusicians
www.atlsymphonymusicians.com
For Immediate Release, October 24, 2014
WAC WALKS AWAY FROM ASO TALKS
Last night just before 11:00 PM, the Woodruff Arts Center representatives for the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra (WAC/ASO) walked away from the table after three days and almost 40 hours of talks ably mediated by Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service Commissioner Rich Giacolone, leaving the musicins at the Buckhead venue the FMCS arranged. Although some significant progress was made in health care -- and further time together may well have resulted in a complete agreement -- the WAC leadership continued steadfastly to refuse to support the need of a world-class Orchestra for a minimum fixed number of musicians. While the orchestra has been reduced by departures to only 77 Musicians, despite the required contractual complement of 88, the WAC refuses even to commit to 77 Musicians.
The ASOPA Committee volunteered to assist in health care cost savings by making a radical shift to a different type of plan that will save the WAC/ASO at least 25% -- over a quarter of a million dollars -- annually over the previous plan, which was canceled by WAC/ASO management last month three weeks after it locked out its musicians on September 7. The Musicians also proposed an annual compensation package which, in the final year of the proposed agreement (2018), would have the musicians earning $1,043 less per year than the compensation they earned during the 2011-12 season.
The ASOPA Committee has worked tirelessly -- and will continue to do so -- with no other intent than to achieve a fair agreement that protects the Orchestra's stature and allows it to return to making music on the stage where it belongs. The Musicians are available to meet and are certain that an agreement is entirely possible that will end the heinous lockout to which the musicians have been subjected. "We deeply appreciate the Orchestra's Board members and other supporters who are working to raise funds and who understand and appreciate the fight to maintain the artistic quality that has made the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra one of the world’s great symphony orchestras, and Atlanta's cultural flagship," stated ASOPA President Paul Murphy.
Attached for your information is a copy of ASOPA’s last proposal dated October 23, 2014 to the WAC/ASO.
Contact:
Paul Murphy, President ASOPA
pmurf@me.com
Daniel Laufer, Vice President ASOPA
LauferASO@aol.com
Facebook: ATL Symphony Musicians
Twitter: @ATLSymMusicians
www.atlsymphonymusicians.com
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Counterproposal of the
Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Players’ Association (ASOPA) and
AFM Local 148-462
Sixth Proposal for a New Agreement
with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Inc./Woodruff Arts Center, Inc.
October 23, 2014
1. Duration and Minimum Compensation
4 YEAR PROPOSAL
(Compensation and percentage increases remain factored into winter season weeks only.)
2013-14 Compensation was $75,936.06
Year 1: September 21, 2014 – September 19, 2015 (52 weeks / 42 winter + 10 summer)
1% / 1% (21 weeks / 21 weeks) increase over $1729.43 = $1746.72 / $1764.18
$1746.72 per 21 weeks times &
$1764.18 per 21 weeks times = $74,095.56 + $3,300 (summer) = $77,395.56
Year 2: September 20, 2015 – September 17, 2016 (52 weeks / 42 winter + 10 summer)
1.75% / 1.75% (21 weeks / 21 weeks) increase over $1764.18 = $1795.05 / $1826.46
$1795.05 per 21 weeks times &
$1826.46 per 21 weeks times = $76,711.32+ $3,300 (summer) = $80,011.32
Year 3: September 18, 2016 – September 23, 2017 (53 weeks / 43 winter + 10 summer)
1.5% / 1.75% (21 weeks / 22 weeks) increase over $1826.46 = $1853.85 / $1886.29
$1853.85 per 21 weeks times &
$1886.29 per 22 weeks times = $79,224.18+ $3,300 (summer) = $84,410.47
Year 4: September 24, 2017 – September 22, 2018 (52 weeks / 43 winter + 9 summer)
2% / 2% (21 weeks / 22 weeks) increase over $1886.29 = $1924.01 / $1962.49
$1924.01 per 21 weeks times &
$1962.49 per 22 weeks times = $84,387.07+ $ 2,970 (summer) = $ 87,357.07
2. Health Insurance
ASOPA tentatively agrees to the BCBS High-deductible plan (HDHP/no. of plan??). includes the $1,500 / $3,000 deductibles for Individuals and Family with the following provisions:
1) EE shall receive from the employer for each contract year $1,000 into their individual HSA account.
2) EE + Child shall receive from the employer for each contract year $2,000 into their individual HSA account.
3) EE + Spouse / Domestic Partner shall receive from the employer for each contract year $2,000 into their individual HSA account.
4) Family shall receive from the employer for each contract year $2,000 into their individual HSA account.
ASOPA also agrees that each contracted Musician covered by this agreement shall contribute for each contract year $20 weekly towards the premium of the referenced BCBS POS High-deductible plan.
To fully agree with this major change in our healthcare provisions in our CBA, ASOPA will need to receive verification of the Summary of Benefits for the BCBSPOS High-deductible plan with the specific benefits outlined, as represented to ASOPA orally across the table by the WAC / ASO, and they shall be fully reflected in the Agreement.
3. Orchestra Complement
Year 1: A Minimum of 77 Musicians
Year 1 – 2: Best efforts to increase complement of Musicians to 81 Musicians by the end of Year 2.
Year 3: A minimum of 85 Musicians by the end of the contract year.
Year 4: A minimum of 89 Musicians by the end of the contract year.
In all other respects, except for making date adjustments to conform to the term of the new Agreement, the current (2014-2018) agreement continue in effect as written.
WAC WALKS AWAY FROM ASO TALKS
Last night just before 11:00 PM, the Woodruff Arts Center representatives for the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra (WAC/ASO) walked away from the table after three days and almost 40 hours of talks ably mediated by Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service Commissioner Rich Giacolone, leaving the musicins at the Buckhead venue the FMCS arranged. Although some significant progress was made in health care -- and further time together may well have resulted in a complete agreement -- the WAC leadership continued steadfastly to refuse to support the need of a world-class Orchestra for a minimum fixed number of musicians. While the orchestra has been reduced by departures to only 77 Musicians, despite the required contractual complement of 88, the WAC refuses even to commit to 77 Musicians.
The ASOPA Committee volunteered to assist in health care cost savings by making a radical shift to a different type of plan that will save the WAC/ASO at least 25% -- over a quarter of a million dollars -- annually over the previous plan, which was canceled by WAC/ASO management last month three weeks after it locked out its musicians on September 7. The Musicians also proposed an annual compensation package which, in the final year of the proposed agreement (2018), would have the musicians earning $1,043 less per year than the compensation they earned during the 2011-12 season.
The ASOPA Committee has worked tirelessly -- and will continue to do so -- with no other intent than to achieve a fair agreement that protects the Orchestra's stature and allows it to return to making music on the stage where it belongs. The Musicians are available to meet and are certain that an agreement is entirely possible that will end the heinous lockout to which the musicians have been subjected. "We deeply appreciate the Orchestra's Board members and other supporters who are working to raise funds and who understand and appreciate the fight to maintain the artistic quality that has made the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra one of the world’s great symphony orchestras, and Atlanta's cultural flagship," stated ASOPA President Paul Murphy.
Attached for your information is a copy of ASOPA’s last proposal dated October 23, 2014 to the WAC/ASO.
Contact:
Paul Murphy, President ASOPA
pmurf@me.com
Daniel Laufer, Vice President ASOPA
LauferASO@aol.com
Facebook: ATL Symphony Musicians
Twitter: @ATLSymMusicians
www.atlsymphonymusicians.com
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Counterproposal of the
Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Players’ Association (ASOPA) and
AFM Local 148-462
Sixth Proposal for a New Agreement
with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Inc./Woodruff Arts Center, Inc.
October 23, 2014
1. Duration and Minimum Compensation
4 YEAR PROPOSAL
(Compensation and percentage increases remain factored into winter season weeks only.)
2013-14 Compensation was $75,936.06
Year 1: September 21, 2014 – September 19, 2015 (52 weeks / 42 winter + 10 summer)
1% / 1% (21 weeks / 21 weeks) increase over $1729.43 = $1746.72 / $1764.18
$1746.72 per 21 weeks times &
$1764.18 per 21 weeks times = $74,095.56 + $3,300 (summer) = $77,395.56
Year 2: September 20, 2015 – September 17, 2016 (52 weeks / 42 winter + 10 summer)
1.75% / 1.75% (21 weeks / 21 weeks) increase over $1764.18 = $1795.05 / $1826.46
$1795.05 per 21 weeks times &
$1826.46 per 21 weeks times = $76,711.32+ $3,300 (summer) = $80,011.32
Year 3: September 18, 2016 – September 23, 2017 (53 weeks / 43 winter + 10 summer)
1.5% / 1.75% (21 weeks / 22 weeks) increase over $1826.46 = $1853.85 / $1886.29
$1853.85 per 21 weeks times &
$1886.29 per 22 weeks times = $79,224.18+ $3,300 (summer) = $84,410.47
Year 4: September 24, 2017 – September 22, 2018 (52 weeks / 43 winter + 9 summer)
2% / 2% (21 weeks / 22 weeks) increase over $1886.29 = $1924.01 / $1962.49
$1924.01 per 21 weeks times &
$1962.49 per 22 weeks times = $84,387.07+ $ 2,970 (summer) = $ 87,357.07
2. Health Insurance
ASOPA tentatively agrees to the BCBS High-deductible plan (HDHP/no. of plan??). includes the $1,500 / $3,000 deductibles for Individuals and Family with the following provisions:
1) EE shall receive from the employer for each contract year $1,000 into their individual HSA account.
2) EE + Child shall receive from the employer for each contract year $2,000 into their individual HSA account.
3) EE + Spouse / Domestic Partner shall receive from the employer for each contract year $2,000 into their individual HSA account.
4) Family shall receive from the employer for each contract year $2,000 into their individual HSA account.
ASOPA also agrees that each contracted Musician covered by this agreement shall contribute for each contract year $20 weekly towards the premium of the referenced BCBS POS High-deductible plan.
To fully agree with this major change in our healthcare provisions in our CBA, ASOPA will need to receive verification of the Summary of Benefits for the BCBSPOS High-deductible plan with the specific benefits outlined, as represented to ASOPA orally across the table by the WAC / ASO, and they shall be fully reflected in the Agreement.
3. Orchestra Complement
Year 1: A Minimum of 77 Musicians
Year 1 – 2: Best efforts to increase complement of Musicians to 81 Musicians by the end of Year 2.
Year 3: A minimum of 85 Musicians by the end of the contract year.
Year 4: A minimum of 89 Musicians by the end of the contract year.
In all other respects, except for making date adjustments to conform to the term of the new Agreement, the current (2014-2018) agreement continue in effect as written.
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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. |
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World's Favourite Orchestra 2014 @Bachtrack.com | WE VOTED ASO! FOURTH PLACE FINISH!
Support from the Minnesota Orchestra and an ICSOM "Call to Action" for assistance to the musicians of the Atlanta Symphony
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Eric Sjöström "Today we (The Musicians of the Minnesota Orchestra) voted to send a lead gift of $16,000 to the Musicians of the Atlanta Symphony, symbolizing $1,000 per month of lock out from October 2012 through January 2014. We survived the siege with tremendous support from ICSOM, along with many other believers in great music!"
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The musicians of the Atlanta Symphony need our financial support. We ask, and encourage, all the orchestras of ICSOM to consider making a financial donation to the cause. A donation from your treasury, or a collection taken by the members of your Players' Association, would be of great assistance. We are confident that all of the musicians in our ICSOM orchestras are eager to stand with their colleagues in Atlanta.
Wherever an orchestra is in trouble, let us all respond. Wherever a musician is in need, let us all respond. Wherever a negative image of the arts is produced, let us answer with a positive message of hope. As they hear our music, let them also hear our voices.
Let this serve as another "Call to Action" for our membership. What happens in Atlanta will affect us all. If we effectively respond to every Call to Action, we will demonstrate the power in collective action. We can and will make a powerful statement to our managements and boards as we work to spread the positive community message of the musicians of ICSOM.
Wherever an orchestra is in trouble, let us all respond. Wherever a musician is in need, let us all respond. Wherever a negative image of the arts is produced, let us answer with a positive message of hope. As they hear our music, let them also hear our voices.
Let this serve as another "Call to Action" for our membership. What happens in Atlanta will affect us all. If we effectively respond to every Call to Action, we will demonstrate the power in collective action. We can and will make a powerful statement to our managements and boards as we work to spread the positive community message of the musicians of ICSOM.
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
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
NEWSWORTHY
The Single-Issue Lockout: Why Complement Is So Important | October 30, 2014 • Bargaining Notes
The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra lockout is nearing the end of its second month. It is now plain that the dispute is over a single issue: orchestra complement. The musicians want the collective bargaining agreement to specify a minimum number of musicians – just like every other full-time professional orchestra in the country – and considering how many musicians left since the complement was cut in the 2012 lockout, the musicians want to see modest increases in that number over the next several years. The ASO – or, more accurately, its parent organization the Woodruff Arts Center – is willing to guarantee only that current musicians won’t lose their jobs, and promises only to use “best efforts” to raise funds to pay for additional positions if the ASO “can afford to do so.”
The bargaining situation is fluid right now. It is unclear whether the ASO/WAC is still demanding, as it has throughout the current lockout, the authority to unilaterally decide whether to fill vacant positions going forward. If so, then it is difficult to see any path to an agreement. As I have noted before, if management retains discretion as to whether or not to fill positions, then management is unilaterally determining how many full-time musicians are in the orchestra. Long-term, management can shrink the group to whatever size it wants. That’s union busting; and if implemented, would be a death warrant for the ASO and a dangerous precedent for the industry. There is simply no way the Atlanta musicians – or any group of musicians, for that matter – can agree to such an arrangement.
But let’s assume for the sake of argument that this is not the case, and that the issue right now is not whether to have a fixed complement, but what size the complement should be. Contrary to right-wing fantasies, the purpose of a higher complement is not to secure “cushy union jobs”; rather, a healthy complement is vital to the success of any symphony orchestra. There are many reasons for that, but I want to focus on three: sound, quality, and health.
The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra lockout is nearing the end of its second month. It is now plain that the dispute is over a single issue: orchestra complement. The musicians want the collective bargaining agreement to specify a minimum number of musicians – just like every other full-time professional orchestra in the country – and considering how many musicians left since the complement was cut in the 2012 lockout, the musicians want to see modest increases in that number over the next several years. The ASO – or, more accurately, its parent organization the Woodruff Arts Center – is willing to guarantee only that current musicians won’t lose their jobs, and promises only to use “best efforts” to raise funds to pay for additional positions if the ASO “can afford to do so.”
The bargaining situation is fluid right now. It is unclear whether the ASO/WAC is still demanding, as it has throughout the current lockout, the authority to unilaterally decide whether to fill vacant positions going forward. If so, then it is difficult to see any path to an agreement. As I have noted before, if management retains discretion as to whether or not to fill positions, then management is unilaterally determining how many full-time musicians are in the orchestra. Long-term, management can shrink the group to whatever size it wants. That’s union busting; and if implemented, would be a death warrant for the ASO and a dangerous precedent for the industry. There is simply no way the Atlanta musicians – or any group of musicians, for that matter – can agree to such an arrangement.
But let’s assume for the sake of argument that this is not the case, and that the issue right now is not whether to have a fixed complement, but what size the complement should be. Contrary to right-wing fantasies, the purpose of a higher complement is not to secure “cushy union jobs”; rather, a healthy complement is vital to the success of any symphony orchestra. There are many reasons for that, but I want to focus on three: sound, quality, and health.
How to Cut $5 Million from the ASO Budget in One Easy Step | by Robbie Reports
It took an open records request and a comparison of numbers across four different sources, but it appears that I have finally found out how much the Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre (VWA) costs the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra (ASO). I have mentioned before that the financial statements available from the Woodruff Arts Center (WAC) are not clear enough to tease out the real costs related to the various activities of the ASO. I pointed out that the funding model used for the VWA broke from the approaches used for other capital development projects that the WAC has undertaken and that it has resulted in a large financial burden for the ASO. I have also already discussed the fact that there seem to be conflicts of interest among many on the WAC’s Board of Governors when it comes to the VWA and that these conflicts of interest may be preventing them from putting the ASO’s interests first when it comes to decisions relating to that property.
The Woodruff Arts Center leadership has repeatedly stated that the ASO has been running deficits for the past 12 years. That coincides with the WAC’s incorporation of what appears to be a shell company, Encore Park for the Arts, and purchasing the land for the VWA from one of its board member’s companies, Cousins Properties. In 2007, when the WAC issued the bonds for the VWA project, they held a credit rating of AA3 from Moody’s. Since then, their bond ratings have been downgraded twice and, just last year, Moody’s issued a statement downgrading the WAC’s outlook, suggesting that another downgrade is likely. The principal reasons given for this are the ASO’s accumulated deficits and the WAC’s accumulated debt. It is hard to imagine that the debt from the VWA is not related to this — indeed, that is likely part of the reason why the WAC leadership retired that debt early rather than fund ASO operations. But what about the costs of running the venue? Does it pay for itself or is it a liability? If you have been following the reports around this lockout or the one in 2012 then you probably have heard mutterings about the VWA being the real source of the ASO’s financial shortfall. Is this true?
It took an open records request and a comparison of numbers across four different sources, but it appears that I have finally found out how much the Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre (VWA) costs the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra (ASO). I have mentioned before that the financial statements available from the Woodruff Arts Center (WAC) are not clear enough to tease out the real costs related to the various activities of the ASO. I pointed out that the funding model used for the VWA broke from the approaches used for other capital development projects that the WAC has undertaken and that it has resulted in a large financial burden for the ASO. I have also already discussed the fact that there seem to be conflicts of interest among many on the WAC’s Board of Governors when it comes to the VWA and that these conflicts of interest may be preventing them from putting the ASO’s interests first when it comes to decisions relating to that property.
The Woodruff Arts Center leadership has repeatedly stated that the ASO has been running deficits for the past 12 years. That coincides with the WAC’s incorporation of what appears to be a shell company, Encore Park for the Arts, and purchasing the land for the VWA from one of its board member’s companies, Cousins Properties. In 2007, when the WAC issued the bonds for the VWA project, they held a credit rating of AA3 from Moody’s. Since then, their bond ratings have been downgraded twice and, just last year, Moody’s issued a statement downgrading the WAC’s outlook, suggesting that another downgrade is likely. The principal reasons given for this are the ASO’s accumulated deficits and the WAC’s accumulated debt. It is hard to imagine that the debt from the VWA is not related to this — indeed, that is likely part of the reason why the WAC leadership retired that debt early rather than fund ASO operations. But what about the costs of running the venue? Does it pay for itself or is it a liability? If you have been following the reports around this lockout or the one in 2012 then you probably have heard mutterings about the VWA being the real source of the ASO’s financial shortfall. Is this true?
Statements, Part 2 | Posted on October 26, 2014
Mask Of The Flower Prince
Yesterday (in part 1 of this blog entry) I noted that the negotiations between the locked out musicians of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra (ASO) and the management of the Woodruff Arts Center (WAC) hit a rough patch; shortly thereafter the two sides had begun making statements in the press. My main point was that the WAC’s statements were, to be honest, bizarre, and they did not inspire trust in the WAC’s ability to manage the situation.
Well… I’m disappointed to report that things only got worse.
While I was posting my blog entry, I learned that the WAC had posted a full-blown summary of its position. I didn’t want to delay my previous post, or make it any longer than it already was, so I held off on commenting about this much fuller statement.
Allow me to do so now.
Mask Of The Flower Prince
Yesterday (in part 1 of this blog entry) I noted that the negotiations between the locked out musicians of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra (ASO) and the management of the Woodruff Arts Center (WAC) hit a rough patch; shortly thereafter the two sides had begun making statements in the press. My main point was that the WAC’s statements were, to be honest, bizarre, and they did not inspire trust in the WAC’s ability to manage the situation.
Well… I’m disappointed to report that things only got worse.
While I was posting my blog entry, I learned that the WAC had posted a full-blown summary of its position. I didn’t want to delay my previous post, or make it any longer than it already was, so I held off on commenting about this much fuller statement.
Allow me to do so now.
Statements, Part 1 | Posted on October 25, 2014
Mask Of The Flower Prince
Statement 5: The Grand Finale. The most jaw-dropping statement of all also came from Hepner, who stated: “The national musicians’ union believes it can divide and conquer and then intimidate our boards into imprudent decisions through its acrimony and misrepresentations. This has been their go-to tactic in labor negotiations for decades. We will not give in to those efforts.”
In truth, I could devote an entire blog entry to these three sentences. They reveal a profound lack of understanding about… well, not to be snarky, but about the real world in which we all live.
What national union is she referring to? Who is in it? Who runs it? Where is it located? What specifically is it doing? What is its plan? How is it implementing its strategy? How does it enforce compliance? How does it retaliate, if crossed?
And what evidence does she have?
I mean, this is as absurd as claiming that the Freemasons and Illuminati are running the Vatican.
But she goes on to mention that this national cabal of shadowy agents is trying to “divide,” “conquer,” and “intimidate” boards everywhere.
But… the boards ultimately have all the power. The WAC board is locking out the musicians, not the other way around. The musicians are going without pay or insurance… how are any of the board members affected in any way? How are these titans of industry intimidated by anything? And how on earth are they about to be “conquered?” They are going through work and life untouched by this lockout. Are they upset about unfavorable coverage in the press? Or the fact that bloggers such as myself are challenging their statements? Good heavens… I’m astonished such powerful community leaders are so fragile. Do they get this flustered in their business dealings, too? Has none of them ever experienced bad publicity?
My sense is that if there are any divisions among the board members, they have happened because some individuals are taking a longer, more holistic view of the situation than others. They’ve come to the conclusion that the WAC board’s actions are dangerous, counter-productive, and short-sighted.
But since everyone knows each other, why don’t you ask them, rather than making grandiose statements that don’t make sense?
And I’m curious as to where Hepner finds evidence that unionized musicians have brutalizing poor, unfortunate boards “for decades.” I mean, is that what happened two years ago when the WAC board previously locked out the ASO musicians? I’m sorry, but the trend for the last decade has been for orchestra boards to unilaterally lockout musicians to force sacrificial cuts in pay and other compensation. Not the other way around.
Ms. Hepner, if you know of a single case where an orchestral union (or any union, for that matter) brutally forced concessions from a board of directors, please let me know.
* * *
I could go on, but I think you get the point. I’m stunned by the rank amateurism being displayed here. And I can’t say I’m looking forward to reading the full statement the WAC has just posted….
Mask Of The Flower Prince
Statement 5: The Grand Finale. The most jaw-dropping statement of all also came from Hepner, who stated: “The national musicians’ union believes it can divide and conquer and then intimidate our boards into imprudent decisions through its acrimony and misrepresentations. This has been their go-to tactic in labor negotiations for decades. We will not give in to those efforts.”
In truth, I could devote an entire blog entry to these three sentences. They reveal a profound lack of understanding about… well, not to be snarky, but about the real world in which we all live.
What national union is she referring to? Who is in it? Who runs it? Where is it located? What specifically is it doing? What is its plan? How is it implementing its strategy? How does it enforce compliance? How does it retaliate, if crossed?
And what evidence does she have?
I mean, this is as absurd as claiming that the Freemasons and Illuminati are running the Vatican.
But she goes on to mention that this national cabal of shadowy agents is trying to “divide,” “conquer,” and “intimidate” boards everywhere.
But… the boards ultimately have all the power. The WAC board is locking out the musicians, not the other way around. The musicians are going without pay or insurance… how are any of the board members affected in any way? How are these titans of industry intimidated by anything? And how on earth are they about to be “conquered?” They are going through work and life untouched by this lockout. Are they upset about unfavorable coverage in the press? Or the fact that bloggers such as myself are challenging their statements? Good heavens… I’m astonished such powerful community leaders are so fragile. Do they get this flustered in their business dealings, too? Has none of them ever experienced bad publicity?
My sense is that if there are any divisions among the board members, they have happened because some individuals are taking a longer, more holistic view of the situation than others. They’ve come to the conclusion that the WAC board’s actions are dangerous, counter-productive, and short-sighted.
But since everyone knows each other, why don’t you ask them, rather than making grandiose statements that don’t make sense?
And I’m curious as to where Hepner finds evidence that unionized musicians have brutalizing poor, unfortunate boards “for decades.” I mean, is that what happened two years ago when the WAC board previously locked out the ASO musicians? I’m sorry, but the trend for the last decade has been for orchestra boards to unilaterally lockout musicians to force sacrificial cuts in pay and other compensation. Not the other way around.
Ms. Hepner, if you know of a single case where an orchestral union (or any union, for that matter) brutally forced concessions from a board of directors, please let me know.
* * *
I could go on, but I think you get the point. I’m stunned by the rank amateurism being displayed here. And I can’t say I’m looking forward to reading the full statement the WAC has just posted….
Mask of the Flower Prince
The nonsensical ravings of a singing archaeologist. Really.
A Response to Virginia Hepner | Posted on October 18, 2014
While I was in London, I missed a curious tidbit from the labor dispute between the musicians of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra (ASO), and the management of the Woodruff Arts Center (WAC) who have locked them out.
In brief, the musicians had raised questions about the actions of WAC Chairman Doug Hertz while he was serving on the Board of Administrators for Tulane University. The musicians noted that Hertz was involved in a series of controversial cost-cutting actions directed against Tulane’s tenured faculty, and compared these actions with his similar cost-cutting plans at the ASO.
The curious point is that WAC President Virginia Hepner gave a strongly-worded defense of Hertz’s actions, as well as the actions of the WAC as a whole.
Her full quote reads:
The protracted financial challenges at the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra are very serious and threaten the health of the entire Woodruff Arts Center. The ASO has had 12 years of accumulated deficits, a severe reduction in its endowment and an annual operating gap that we cannot afford to continue. Over the last eight months, ou team has proposed many potential scenarios to the musicians in an attempt to find a solution to the problem. We continue to ask the musicians for constructive ideas to help us address these challenges and we are frustrated that they have turned a deaf ear to the situation. We are saddened that they are attempting to disparage the reputation of Doug Hertz, our chairman. He is widely recognized as one of the most successful and generous leaders in Atlanta and we feel extremely fortunate to have his ongoing support at The Woodruff Arts Center. Our fervent hope is that a federal mediator will bring calm to the protests, picketing and petitions and get us back to meaningful progress at the negotiating table.
I take great issue with this statement, and want to post a quick rebuttal.
While I was in London, I missed a curious tidbit from the labor dispute between the musicians of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra (ASO), and the management of the Woodruff Arts Center (WAC) who have locked them out.
In brief, the musicians had raised questions about the actions of WAC Chairman Doug Hertz while he was serving on the Board of Administrators for Tulane University. The musicians noted that Hertz was involved in a series of controversial cost-cutting actions directed against Tulane’s tenured faculty, and compared these actions with his similar cost-cutting plans at the ASO.
The curious point is that WAC President Virginia Hepner gave a strongly-worded defense of Hertz’s actions, as well as the actions of the WAC as a whole.
Her full quote reads:
The protracted financial challenges at the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra are very serious and threaten the health of the entire Woodruff Arts Center. The ASO has had 12 years of accumulated deficits, a severe reduction in its endowment and an annual operating gap that we cannot afford to continue. Over the last eight months, ou team has proposed many potential scenarios to the musicians in an attempt to find a solution to the problem. We continue to ask the musicians for constructive ideas to help us address these challenges and we are frustrated that they have turned a deaf ear to the situation. We are saddened that they are attempting to disparage the reputation of Doug Hertz, our chairman. He is widely recognized as one of the most successful and generous leaders in Atlanta and we feel extremely fortunate to have his ongoing support at The Woodruff Arts Center. Our fervent hope is that a federal mediator will bring calm to the protests, picketing and petitions and get us back to meaningful progress at the negotiating table.
I take great issue with this statement, and want to post a quick rebuttal.
Breaking news: Musicians say ASO’s federal mediation stalled after just two days of negotiation | October 16, 2014
By Jenny Jarvie
Federal mediation in the bitter labor dispute between Atlanta Symphony Orchestra’s management and musicians appears to have stalled after only two days of negotiations last week.
The musicians — who have been locked out of symphony facilities almost six weeks without pay — vented their frustration with management yesterday evening in a letter to the ASO’s board of directors. They said the federal mediation process was halted last Thursday after only two days of meetings when representatives of the orchestra’s parent organization, the Woodruff Arts Center, said they had to consult its governing board for further guidance and instruction.
WAC spokesman Randy Donaldson has not responded to a request for comment.
After waiting a week for negotiations to resume, the musicians said that federal mediator Allison Beck — acting director of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service — informed them there would be no further meetings this week. Beck will be away for a week beginning today. Her colleague, Richard Giacolone, will remain available in the event that WAC’s negotiators — including legal counsel Tom Kilpatrick of Alston & Bird and WAC president and CEO Virginia Hepner — return to the table to work out a potential settlement.
The federal mediation process requires that neither side speaks to the media. In their email to the ASO board, the musicians called WAC’s actions “disappointing.” The musicians said that after clearing their schedules, and even turning down offers of work in the hope of resolving the dispute, they continue to wait for WAC to “stop wasting precious time.”
“The damage already wrought by the WAC — the very institution entrusted with the stewardship of Atlanta’s cultural pride — will take years to reverse,” the musicians warned the ASO board. “But it can be reversed, and must be.”
By Jenny Jarvie
Federal mediation in the bitter labor dispute between Atlanta Symphony Orchestra’s management and musicians appears to have stalled after only two days of negotiations last week.
The musicians — who have been locked out of symphony facilities almost six weeks without pay — vented their frustration with management yesterday evening in a letter to the ASO’s board of directors. They said the federal mediation process was halted last Thursday after only two days of meetings when representatives of the orchestra’s parent organization, the Woodruff Arts Center, said they had to consult its governing board for further guidance and instruction.
WAC spokesman Randy Donaldson has not responded to a request for comment.
After waiting a week for negotiations to resume, the musicians said that federal mediator Allison Beck — acting director of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service — informed them there would be no further meetings this week. Beck will be away for a week beginning today. Her colleague, Richard Giacolone, will remain available in the event that WAC’s negotiators — including legal counsel Tom Kilpatrick of Alston & Bird and WAC president and CEO Virginia Hepner — return to the table to work out a potential settlement.
The federal mediation process requires that neither side speaks to the media. In their email to the ASO board, the musicians called WAC’s actions “disappointing.” The musicians said that after clearing their schedules, and even turning down offers of work in the hope of resolving the dispute, they continue to wait for WAC to “stop wasting precious time.”
“The damage already wrought by the WAC — the very institution entrusted with the stewardship of Atlanta’s cultural pride — will take years to reverse,” the musicians warned the ASO board. “But it can be reversed, and must be.”
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.
- The ASO musicians were CUT from 95 musicians to 88 in 2012. Other major orchestras have between 95 - 106 musicians.
- 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.
- At 42 weeks, 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 on Martin Luther King's birthday, National Black Arts Festival, annual New Year's Eve concert.
"Cultural Jewel" not only of Atlanta, but also of the entire Southeast.
Analysis: The core of the ASO lockout is whether Atlanta will support a world-class orchestra | October 15, 2014
By James L. Paulk
By James L. Paulk
Could we lose the orchestra altogether, as happened in Miami and Honolulu in recent years? Of course we could. These things always seem impossible until they happen. There is a cascading effect flowing from the lockout. We are losing subscribers. Donors are angry. The crisis feeds on itself.
The people on the orchestra’s board are good and dedicated people. Among them are some of the orchestra’s biggest donors. The same is true of the Woodruff Arts Center board. The essential problem comes down to money.
A lot has been said about the ostensibly low percentage of the ASO’s budget that goes for salaries compared to other orchestras. My feeling is that we are not seeing an apples-to-apples comparison. There is an unfortunate lack of transparency regarding the ASO’s financial data. It is merged into the WAC’s Form 990 reports, and the way budget data is reported seems confusing.
To be fair, there is no indication that the size or compensation of ASO’s administration are out of line with those of its peers. Rather, it is likely that the cash flow from the ASO’s Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre makes the total budget number larger than that of cities with similar orchestra payrolls.
No amount of finger-pointing will solve this problem. If Atlanta wants to retain its amazing orchestra, the glory of the Southeast, it must come up with the money. No major performing arts organization can exist without a large portion of its budget coming from contributions.
The lion’s share usually comes from corporations and foundations. Study an ASO program from last season, or go to the Atlanta Symphony website and click on “Giving,” then “Sponsorship and Grants.” The only three companies giving $250,000 or more are Coca-Cola, Wells Fargo, and Delta. Now think of all the big Atlanta-based corporations that are missing. Some do appear further down the page, of course, but this is the time for them to step up. SunTrust, Equifax, NCR, Home Depot and UPS are clocking in at less than $100,000. Georgia-Pacific isn’t even listed.
I’m not necessarily trying to shame anyone here. Better to see this as an opportunity for these civic-minded companies to come to the rescue of this vital institution in their home town. It’s the right thing to do, and they would earn the appreciation of everyone. I assume there is also an opportunity for renaming Symphony Hall.
And where is the government support? Public funds seem to be available whenever there is a massive sports facility to be built, but very little is apportioned to supporting the arts.
There is roughly a $2 million difference in what management says would make the ASO sustainable financially and what the musicians say is required to avoid further damage to the orchestra. The divide is not that wide. This is a city that came together for the Olympics. Fewer than 10 years ago, we were discussing a $300 million Calatrava-designed hall for this same orchestra.
Can we rekindle just a little bit of that kind of spirit and rally once again to protect the city’s crowning artistic achievement?
What is needed are some serious multiyear commitments from companies, foundations, government and individuals in a position to save this priceless asset for Atlanta. If we continue to let it drift away, we will never get back what we had.
When I was in college, the saying was: “if you give a party, you gotta pay the band.” Time is not on our side here.
The people on the orchestra’s board are good and dedicated people. Among them are some of the orchestra’s biggest donors. The same is true of the Woodruff Arts Center board. The essential problem comes down to money.
A lot has been said about the ostensibly low percentage of the ASO’s budget that goes for salaries compared to other orchestras. My feeling is that we are not seeing an apples-to-apples comparison. There is an unfortunate lack of transparency regarding the ASO’s financial data. It is merged into the WAC’s Form 990 reports, and the way budget data is reported seems confusing.
To be fair, there is no indication that the size or compensation of ASO’s administration are out of line with those of its peers. Rather, it is likely that the cash flow from the ASO’s Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre makes the total budget number larger than that of cities with similar orchestra payrolls.
No amount of finger-pointing will solve this problem. If Atlanta wants to retain its amazing orchestra, the glory of the Southeast, it must come up with the money. No major performing arts organization can exist without a large portion of its budget coming from contributions.
The lion’s share usually comes from corporations and foundations. Study an ASO program from last season, or go to the Atlanta Symphony website and click on “Giving,” then “Sponsorship and Grants.” The only three companies giving $250,000 or more are Coca-Cola, Wells Fargo, and Delta. Now think of all the big Atlanta-based corporations that are missing. Some do appear further down the page, of course, but this is the time for them to step up. SunTrust, Equifax, NCR, Home Depot and UPS are clocking in at less than $100,000. Georgia-Pacific isn’t even listed.
I’m not necessarily trying to shame anyone here. Better to see this as an opportunity for these civic-minded companies to come to the rescue of this vital institution in their home town. It’s the right thing to do, and they would earn the appreciation of everyone. I assume there is also an opportunity for renaming Symphony Hall.
And where is the government support? Public funds seem to be available whenever there is a massive sports facility to be built, but very little is apportioned to supporting the arts.
There is roughly a $2 million difference in what management says would make the ASO sustainable financially and what the musicians say is required to avoid further damage to the orchestra. The divide is not that wide. This is a city that came together for the Olympics. Fewer than 10 years ago, we were discussing a $300 million Calatrava-designed hall for this same orchestra.
Can we rekindle just a little bit of that kind of spirit and rally once again to protect the city’s crowning artistic achievement?
What is needed are some serious multiyear commitments from companies, foundations, government and individuals in a position to save this priceless asset for Atlanta. If we continue to let it drift away, we will never get back what we had.
When I was in college, the saying was: “if you give a party, you gotta pay the band.” Time is not on our side here.
Atlanta Symphony Orchestra struggles during second lockout in two years | October, 8 2014 by Geoff Edgers
Daniel Laufer was among the supporters of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra musicians who was picketing Monday outside the Woodruff Arts Center in Atlanta. (Michael A. Schwarz/For the Washington Post)
|
ATLANTA -- The cellist, who has barely slept, searches his laptop for a secret recording of a former symphony executive. The clarinetist is gone, joining two other musicians now playing in the New York Philharmonic. And the percussionist, who practiced all summer for a star turn that may never come, spent a recent morning packing bottles at a local brewery. He got $45 and, he adds, a case of ale.
This is life during a lockout, as members of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra battle on two fronts: one for their collective future as a respected institution and the other for their families, who must make do without weekly paychecks and health insurance. “I worry so much,” says violinist Denise Smith, a 30-year veteran of the ASO standing in a picket line outside the Woodruff Arts Center this week. “I know people are hurting. We have new players who have just moved here, who have moving expenses and student loans, and I don’t know how they’re paying for it.” Symphony labor battles have become increasingly common, with recent conflicts in Minnesota, Chicago and at the Metropolitan Opera. What’s special about Atlanta’s dispute is that it’s the second lockout in two years. The Woodruff Arts Center, which oversees the ASO, demanded and received $5.2 million in cuts in 2012, which included reducing the orchestra’s season to 41 weeks from 52. Stanley Romanstein, the ASO’s president, assured the players that would never happen again. But Romanstein resigned last month, and the Woodruff leaders say that they were not aware of any such promise. |
Interest in Conflicts of Interest | October 8, 2014
Robbie Reports is a blog set up by Robbie Clark, a man who loves music and is an avid fan of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. Concerned about the Woodruff Arts Center’s lockout of the ATL Symphony Musicians, Robbie began looking into the business practices of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and its parent organization, the Woodruff Arts Center, and did not like what he found. Robbie Reports hopes to bring attention to some of the many things that Robbie has found that need to be addressed to assure that the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra — and the rest of the divisions of the Woodruff Arts Center — have the kind of effective management that they need to continue providing the highest caliber art to the Atlanta area.
Robbie Clark’s investigative work is independent of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Players Association. While he does partner with Save Our Symphony Atlanta to get these stories distributed, the choice in subject matter, research, and decision to publish are all his own. Because this work deals with issues that go beyond the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra lockout, Robbie will continue his work during the negotiations.
Robbie Clark’s investigative work is independent of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Players Association. While he does partner with Save Our Symphony Atlanta to get these stories distributed, the choice in subject matter, research, and decision to publish are all his own. Because this work deals with issues that go beyond the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra lockout, Robbie will continue his work during the negotiations.
In a previous article, I wrote about some possible conflicts of interest related to the Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre. The land was purchased from Cousins Properties and Duke Realty and, I’ve since discovered, Duke Realty also was contracted to build it (see slide 14). It is worrisome when the leaders of a non-profit benefit financially from the non-profit organization that they are charged to lead. Donors and grantors do not like to think that they are paying to line a private individual’s pockets when they are trying to support the mission of an organization. That’s why I was so disappointed in what I found when I took a closer look at the Woodruff Arts Center’s (WAC) Forms 990.
Since 2008, non-profits have been required to disclose any business transactions involving interested persons (i.e. people in the organization that may face a conflict of interest in performing their duties). This would include any of the trustees and would absolutely include anyone on the Board of Governors. The WAC’s 2012 Form 990 lists four such business transactions with trustees.
Unfortunately, this list is incomplete. Contained within the form 990 itself is another major business transaction: $461,494 paid out to Coxe Curry & Associates for consulting services on fundraising campaigns. Phil Jacobs, the Nominating and Governance Committee Chair of the WAC Governing Board, is a senior consultant at Coxe Curry & Associates. That’s a pretty glaring omission that left me wondering if there could be any others.
Since 2008, non-profits have been required to disclose any business transactions involving interested persons (i.e. people in the organization that may face a conflict of interest in performing their duties). This would include any of the trustees and would absolutely include anyone on the Board of Governors. The WAC’s 2012 Form 990 lists four such business transactions with trustees.
Unfortunately, this list is incomplete. Contained within the form 990 itself is another major business transaction: $461,494 paid out to Coxe Curry & Associates for consulting services on fundraising campaigns. Phil Jacobs, the Nominating and Governance Committee Chair of the WAC Governing Board, is a senior consultant at Coxe Curry & Associates. That’s a pretty glaring omission that left me wondering if there could be any others.
Things Get Crazy In Atlanta | October 6, 2014 | Adaptistration by Drew McManus
A Lawyer’s Worst Nightmare It isn’t surprising that Hertz has stayed out of the public limelight. His comments project an image of profound ignorance on core issues related to successful nonprofit performing arts governance alongside a simmering contempt for artistic employees (conductors and instrumentalists alike).
At the same time, it isn’t surprising to learn that a board chair maintains these positions, having said that, it is highly unusual for one to offer them up as rationale for strategic decision making.
A similar situation transpired in the Metropolitan Opera labor dispute where the institution’s General Manager, Peter Gelb, issued a string of quotes to the press that depicted a hardline approach toward employer-employee relations. Gelb’s defining moment that contributed to the Met emerging from its zero-sum bargaining strategy occurred when he told the Associated Press that “we need to impose a lockout because otherwise we have no ability to make [the artist unions] take [negotiations] seriously.”
Comments such as this make it extraordinarily difficult for an attorney representing either side in a labor dispute to implement a successful strategy, which includes carefully crafted sound bites and talking points. There’s a saying in that field, “don’t let them see how you make the sausage” and a key element in that approach is to stay on script.
In Hertz’s case, his unfiltered remarks were akin to wearing a bloody apron to the interview. It was the sort of thing that makes labor lawyers develop substance abuse problems and in the words of labor lawyer Michael G. Dzialo of Pitta & Giblin LLP, “If he were my client, I’d take him backstage and slap him around a bit, because he’s gone off-script. You do not say that.”
At the same time, it isn’t surprising to learn that a board chair maintains these positions, having said that, it is highly unusual for one to offer them up as rationale for strategic decision making.
A similar situation transpired in the Metropolitan Opera labor dispute where the institution’s General Manager, Peter Gelb, issued a string of quotes to the press that depicted a hardline approach toward employer-employee relations. Gelb’s defining moment that contributed to the Met emerging from its zero-sum bargaining strategy occurred when he told the Associated Press that “we need to impose a lockout because otherwise we have no ability to make [the artist unions] take [negotiations] seriously.”
Comments such as this make it extraordinarily difficult for an attorney representing either side in a labor dispute to implement a successful strategy, which includes carefully crafted sound bites and talking points. There’s a saying in that field, “don’t let them see how you make the sausage” and a key element in that approach is to stay on script.
In Hertz’s case, his unfiltered remarks were akin to wearing a bloody apron to the interview. It was the sort of thing that makes labor lawyers develop substance abuse problems and in the words of labor lawyer Michael G. Dzialo of Pitta & Giblin LLP, “If he were my client, I’d take him backstage and slap him around a bit, because he’s gone off-script. You do not say that.”
For Immediate Release, October 6, 2014
Tone Deaf at the WAC
Virginia Hepner, CEO of the Woodruff Arts Center (WAC), recently lectured the Musicians of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra that the WAC has continued “to ask the musicians for constructive ideas” to help address financial challenges, while the Musicians “have turned a deaf ear to the situation.” Having never met with the Musicians herself even when invited by them before the expiration of the prior agreement, then locking them out on September 7, Hepner has chosen to communicate only through the pages of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution (October 3, 2014).
Hepner’s statement is as false as it is insulting to the Musicians. It is hard to believe that she first ignores not only the very tangible $5.2 million ASO Musicians gave back to the WAC in salary concessions just two years ago, but also the severe artistic concessions that reduced the number of musicians (or orchestra complement) from 95 to 88, and eliminated the ASO’s summer performances, subjecting the musicians instead to a ten week furlough (or layoff) and depriving Atlanta metro of its beloved summer concerts. At that time, Larry Gellerstedt and Doug Hertz, the then-current and current WAC Governing Board chairs, demanded outright that “Due to representations made to investors and key donors as well as the rating agencies, we must achieve and balanced budget [sic] and we require that half of the $5M gap comes from the contract with the musicians.” The Musicians accepted these one-time concessions in good faith, despite the economic and artistic harm they caused the Musicians and the Orchestra as a whole.
Ms. Hepner’s recollections, and those of Messrs. Gellerstedt and Hertz, apparently also need to be refreshed about the many other constructive ideas the musicians have volunteered, in addition to maintaining stunningly high artistic standards and exemplary professionalism. In May 2013, the ASO’s Artistic Advisory Committee (staffed entirely by musicians) conducted exhaustive research and created a 59-page report, which they presented to the CEO and management of the ASO, containing many revenue-producing ideas for concerts and activities that have proven track records of success in orchestras around the country. The Musicians continued to share this presentation and its ideas -- that have actually produced sold-out programs over multiple performances around the country -- with other staff and some Board members over several months, and were assured that the WAC was made aware of them. Yet not a single idea from this presentation was ever followed up on or implemented, resulting in missed opportunities to increase revenue and engage with our audiences. Deaf ear, indeed.
As demonstrated in the information just released on Saturday, October 4, the real fiscal problem for the Woodruff Arts Center is its tax-exempt bond liability -- neither related nor beneficial to the ASO, and certainly not caused by the Musicians or the ASO -- which increased by over $143.72 million to $173.02 million in 2003. This open drain on available funding for the actual Arts divisions of the WAC is never acknowledged by the WAC. The ASO’s deficits were funded largely by the interest and investment growth of the ASO’s endowment, as they are designed to be in the non-profit performing arts. On the other hand, the WAC spent $8 million servicing its debt during the last fiscal year. What, then -- and who -- has really put the Arts Divisions at risk?
It must also not be overlooked that the WAC Annual Corporate Campaign raised a record $9.6 million in FY14. If the WAC has to pay over $8 million to service debt taken on and not paid for in 2001-2003, only about $1.6 million from the Corporate Campaign is left over to help fund the entire Woodruff Arts Center.
Finally, the WAC also cut its annual allocation to the ASO from a high of around $2.2 million in fiscal 2007 to approximately $800,000 for the current fiscal year (this is the “allowance” from the WAC Endowment -- created to support the Orchestra and the other arts divisions -- that is actually given to the ASO to help it operate each year).
The WAC could have made any of these decisions in such a way as to enable the ASO to have not only a legitimate balanced budget, but possibly even a surplus. The WAC has instead chosen over a number of years to handcuff the ASO, restraining the Orchestra from charting a course to a healthier and more successful future.
Call the Musicians and their many patrons and supporters crazy, but something isn’t right here, and it has nothing to do with the Orchestra’s locked-out musicians.
Contact:
Paul Murphy, President ASOPA
pmurf@me.com
Daniel Laufer, Vice President ASOPA
LauferASO@aol.com
Jessica Oudin
JSOudin@gmail.com
Facebook: ATL Symphony Musicians
Twitter: @ATLSymMusicians
www.atlsymphonymusicians.com
Tone Deaf at the WAC
Virginia Hepner, CEO of the Woodruff Arts Center (WAC), recently lectured the Musicians of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra that the WAC has continued “to ask the musicians for constructive ideas” to help address financial challenges, while the Musicians “have turned a deaf ear to the situation.” Having never met with the Musicians herself even when invited by them before the expiration of the prior agreement, then locking them out on September 7, Hepner has chosen to communicate only through the pages of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution (October 3, 2014).
Hepner’s statement is as false as it is insulting to the Musicians. It is hard to believe that she first ignores not only the very tangible $5.2 million ASO Musicians gave back to the WAC in salary concessions just two years ago, but also the severe artistic concessions that reduced the number of musicians (or orchestra complement) from 95 to 88, and eliminated the ASO’s summer performances, subjecting the musicians instead to a ten week furlough (or layoff) and depriving Atlanta metro of its beloved summer concerts. At that time, Larry Gellerstedt and Doug Hertz, the then-current and current WAC Governing Board chairs, demanded outright that “Due to representations made to investors and key donors as well as the rating agencies, we must achieve and balanced budget [sic] and we require that half of the $5M gap comes from the contract with the musicians.” The Musicians accepted these one-time concessions in good faith, despite the economic and artistic harm they caused the Musicians and the Orchestra as a whole.
Ms. Hepner’s recollections, and those of Messrs. Gellerstedt and Hertz, apparently also need to be refreshed about the many other constructive ideas the musicians have volunteered, in addition to maintaining stunningly high artistic standards and exemplary professionalism. In May 2013, the ASO’s Artistic Advisory Committee (staffed entirely by musicians) conducted exhaustive research and created a 59-page report, which they presented to the CEO and management of the ASO, containing many revenue-producing ideas for concerts and activities that have proven track records of success in orchestras around the country. The Musicians continued to share this presentation and its ideas -- that have actually produced sold-out programs over multiple performances around the country -- with other staff and some Board members over several months, and were assured that the WAC was made aware of them. Yet not a single idea from this presentation was ever followed up on or implemented, resulting in missed opportunities to increase revenue and engage with our audiences. Deaf ear, indeed.
As demonstrated in the information just released on Saturday, October 4, the real fiscal problem for the Woodruff Arts Center is its tax-exempt bond liability -- neither related nor beneficial to the ASO, and certainly not caused by the Musicians or the ASO -- which increased by over $143.72 million to $173.02 million in 2003. This open drain on available funding for the actual Arts divisions of the WAC is never acknowledged by the WAC. The ASO’s deficits were funded largely by the interest and investment growth of the ASO’s endowment, as they are designed to be in the non-profit performing arts. On the other hand, the WAC spent $8 million servicing its debt during the last fiscal year. What, then -- and who -- has really put the Arts Divisions at risk?
It must also not be overlooked that the WAC Annual Corporate Campaign raised a record $9.6 million in FY14. If the WAC has to pay over $8 million to service debt taken on and not paid for in 2001-2003, only about $1.6 million from the Corporate Campaign is left over to help fund the entire Woodruff Arts Center.
Finally, the WAC also cut its annual allocation to the ASO from a high of around $2.2 million in fiscal 2007 to approximately $800,000 for the current fiscal year (this is the “allowance” from the WAC Endowment -- created to support the Orchestra and the other arts divisions -- that is actually given to the ASO to help it operate each year).
The WAC could have made any of these decisions in such a way as to enable the ASO to have not only a legitimate balanced budget, but possibly even a surplus. The WAC has instead chosen over a number of years to handcuff the ASO, restraining the Orchestra from charting a course to a healthier and more successful future.
Call the Musicians and their many patrons and supporters crazy, but something isn’t right here, and it has nothing to do with the Orchestra’s locked-out musicians.
Contact:
Paul Murphy, President ASOPA
pmurf@me.com
Daniel Laufer, Vice President ASOPA
LauferASO@aol.com
Jessica Oudin
JSOudin@gmail.com
Facebook: ATL Symphony Musicians
Twitter: @ATLSymMusicians
www.atlsymphonymusicians.com
Press Statement 10-4-14
Atlanta, GA, October 4, 2014
Just yesterday, October 3rd 2014, in an exclusive interview regarding the crisis at the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra with the Atlanta Journal Constitution, Douglas Hertz, Chair of the Woodruff Arts Center Governing Board, was quoted stating that “we’ve got a division of the arts center that threatens the ability of the other divisions (the Alliance Theater, High Museum of Art and Arts for Learning) to produce the great work that they’re doing. We owe it to everybody to make sure that everybody is pulling their weight.”
The Musicians believe that decisions made by the leadership of the WAC Governing Board during the expansion of the High Museum and Art Center, which was completed around 2005, warrants close scrutiny; the fiduciary decisions made associated with this expansion seem to be a significant cause of the financial strain impacting all of the WAC’s divisions, including the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra.
The fundraising efforts by the High Museum and the Woodruff Arts Center were extremely successful in raising the necessary capital for the expansion project; an amount well in excess of $164 million was secured. (http://www.dexigner.com/news/5871) Yet, despite having raised such a large sum, something troubling seems to have occurred.
In the year 2000, the WAC had an outstanding tax-exempt bond liability of $29.3 million. This number increased from 2001 through 2003 to a staggering $173.02 million, or an increase in liability of $143.72 million in only three short years. (http://www.faqs.org/tax-exempt/GA/Robert-W-Woodruff-Arts-Center-Inc.html#detailedReports_a - see link below) This increased debt coincided directly with the WAC’s expansion of the High Museum, which by all accounts had appeared to be fully funded.
The Musicians would also point out that the ASO did not benefit from this expansion in any way. If the High’s expansion project was fully funded, why did the debt of the WAC increase by $143.72 million? Where did all the funds raised for the expansion project go, if they were not utilized to pay for the project?
Contact:
Paul Murphy, President ASOPA
pmurf@me.com
Daniel Laufer, Vice President ASOPA
LauferASO@aol.com
Jessica Oudin
JSOudin@gmail.com
Facebook: ATL Symphony Musicians
Twitter: @ATLSymMusicians
www.atlsymphonymusicians.com
Atlanta, GA, October 4, 2014
Just yesterday, October 3rd 2014, in an exclusive interview regarding the crisis at the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra with the Atlanta Journal Constitution, Douglas Hertz, Chair of the Woodruff Arts Center Governing Board, was quoted stating that “we’ve got a division of the arts center that threatens the ability of the other divisions (the Alliance Theater, High Museum of Art and Arts for Learning) to produce the great work that they’re doing. We owe it to everybody to make sure that everybody is pulling their weight.”
The Musicians believe that decisions made by the leadership of the WAC Governing Board during the expansion of the High Museum and Art Center, which was completed around 2005, warrants close scrutiny; the fiduciary decisions made associated with this expansion seem to be a significant cause of the financial strain impacting all of the WAC’s divisions, including the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra.
The fundraising efforts by the High Museum and the Woodruff Arts Center were extremely successful in raising the necessary capital for the expansion project; an amount well in excess of $164 million was secured. (http://www.dexigner.com/news/5871) Yet, despite having raised such a large sum, something troubling seems to have occurred.
In the year 2000, the WAC had an outstanding tax-exempt bond liability of $29.3 million. This number increased from 2001 through 2003 to a staggering $173.02 million, or an increase in liability of $143.72 million in only three short years. (http://www.faqs.org/tax-exempt/GA/Robert-W-Woodruff-Arts-Center-Inc.html#detailedReports_a - see link below) This increased debt coincided directly with the WAC’s expansion of the High Museum, which by all accounts had appeared to be fully funded.
The Musicians would also point out that the ASO did not benefit from this expansion in any way. If the High’s expansion project was fully funded, why did the debt of the WAC increase by $143.72 million? Where did all the funds raised for the expansion project go, if they were not utilized to pay for the project?
Contact:
Paul Murphy, President ASOPA
pmurf@me.com
Daniel Laufer, Vice President ASOPA
LauferASO@aol.com
Jessica Oudin
JSOudin@gmail.com
Facebook: ATL Symphony Musicians
Twitter: @ATLSymMusicians
www.atlsymphonymusicians.com
The Economics Of The Symphony: Why Do So Many Struggle? | October 2, 2014
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Tom Smith, an economist at Emory University’s Goizueta Business School, says to think of an orchestra player like a professional athlete.
“You have these uniquely talented people, and they deserve more money,” he says. Smith says just like sports teams, orchestras depend in part on ticket sales to pay their players. But whereas pro-sports teams usually have packed stadiums, orchestras are struggling because of aging audiences and lagging ticket sales. So that’s the problem, right? Well, sure, says Smith, but it’s more complicated than that. “A team like the Chicago Bulls, or the Atlanta Hawks or whoever else, maybe 35 percent of their revenue comes from ticket sales,” he says, “so just filling the seats doesn’t help the Hawks pay for their salaries on their players.” |
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Press Statement 10-3-14
Atlanta, GA, October 3, 2014
During the many months of negotiations that preceded the present lockout of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Musicians by the Woodruff Arts Center (WAC), numerous sources within the WAC shared with the Musicians several long-term strategic plan ideas for the ASO that were being quietly discussed among WAC Governing Board members. If implemented, these plans would permanently downsize the Grammy award-winning Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, destroying the prestigious reputation it has earned through decades of professional excellence.
During the summer of 2013, it was suggested multiple times both by Stanley Romanstein, the recently departed President and CEO of the ASO, and Virginia Hepner, the WAC’s current President and CEO, that the number of full-time tenured musicians of the ASO should be permanently reduced, and resulting vacancies could be filled with alumni from the ASO’s Talent Development Program (TDP), who would perform in an “internship” capacity. This suggestion was meant to replicate the design of the New World Symphony – a program dedicated to preparing highly gifted graduates of distinguished music programs for leadership roles in professional orchestras and ensembles around the world. In addition to elevating the TDP – and capitalizing on the funding that educational programs such as the New World Symphony and TDP sometimes enjoy – this proposal was designed to reduce musician expenses; the WAC/ASO expected to give these “interns” a small stipend for their efforts, instead of salary and benefits at all commensurate with that of full-time ASO Musicians.
In March of 2014, ASO Board Chair Karole Lloyd suggested to the ASOPA committee a two-tiered salary system, relegating all new members of the ASO to a severely reduced compensation package for the duration of their “probationary” periods with the Orchestra. Unlike in other professions, orchestra musicians are not hired with the expectation that they will grow into their jobs; a musician unable to consistently perform at the highest artistic level will likely not even win an audition, let alone achieve tenure. To demand that one musician be paid substantially less than his or her colleagues, all while performing the same work under the same intense pressure, exposes a profound deficit of understanding of professional musicianship on the part of the ASO’s Board Chair, Karole Lloyd.
Numerous ASO staff and Board members have told us that these ideas seem to have originated with the leadership of the Woodruff Arts Center Governing Board, including Board Chair Douglas Hertz. Mr. Hertz, who has a fine record of philanthropic work, also has an unfortunate history of trying to eliminate tenured positions within a workforce to reduce expenses.
Douglas Hertz was serving on the Tulane University Board of Administrators when Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans in 2005. In response to the financial problems the hurricane caused, Tulane then-President Scott Cowan proposed to eliminate tenured faculty at the university, and replace existing faculty members with less expensive, non-tenured new hires. This action was supported by the Tulane Board of Administrators, including Douglas Hertz, and the despite numerous lawsuits that ensued, notifications of release were issued to approximately 200 faculty members in December 2005. This action led to the immediate censure of Tulane University by the American Association of University Professors. (http://www.aaup.org/article/developments-relating-censure-association - .VCq5eb74vlJ)
Mr. Hertz’s Tulane University scenario is strikingly similar not only to the two strategic plan ideas described earlier for the ASO, but it also foreshadows one of the conditions of the “Last, Best, and Final Offer” that the WAC/ASO emailed to ASO Musicians on September 5, 2014. In this offer, the WAC proposed a “voluntary retirement incentive” in the amount of $150,000 to any Musician who had given over 30 years of service to the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. This offer, in conjunction with the WAC’s refusal to stipulate any minimum number of players – or complement size – required by the ASO, is a thinly veiled attempt to reduce the size of the orchestra, and reduce the costs associated with more established, longer-serving Musicians. This element of the WAC’s proposal also paves the way for the creation of the “internship” orchestra that was suggested earlier; by steadfastly adhering to the need for a “flexible complement,” as the WAC has done in every one of its proposals, it is entirely possible that the WAC Governing Board Leadership is laying the foundation to replace seasoned Musicians with less experienced, less expensive “interns,” similar to what Mr. Hertz helped to do with the professors at Tulane University. Lastly, if every eligible Musician were to accept this buy-out, it would cost the WAC $3.75 million, which well exceeds the amount necessary over the expired agreement to fund the Musicians’ proposal of September 6th in its entirety.
Additionally, Douglas Hertz has taken pains to remind the community that the ASO has been posting deficits for twelve consecutive years, and that the ASO “cannot have what it cannot pay for.” However, those deficits cannot be attributed to the Musicians, whose compensation has historically come in UNDER budget. It is the job of the ASO & WAC Boards and their staffs to raise the funds to support the ASO. Have the fundraising goals been raised to meet the needs of the ASO? The Musicians’ job is always to perform at the highest level of artistry, which has been demonstrated year after year. Furthermore, the Musicians have made tremendous sacrifices over the years in efforts to mitigate the institution’s financial problems. In 2004, the Musicians negotiated six months early to relinquish a contractual raise, which resulted in the extension of the then-current wage for an additional year and a half. In 2009, the Musicians volunteered a 5% cut in compensation. In 2012, the Musicians agreed to a 15% reduction in annual salaries, a reduction of full-time Musicians, and a reduction in the length of our season.
If the WAC and its Governing Board Chair Douglas Hertz are truly only interested in achieving a balanced budget, the Musicians have demonstrated through their previous actions a willingness to be a part of the solution. In contrast, Douglas Hertz’s previous actions demonstrate a willingness to break the backs of employees to achieve further financial concessions. The past and present actions of Douglas Hertz suggest that he is more interested in reducing the number of professional musicians in the ASO than he is either in securing financial stability or in preserving the high artistic standards of the institution he has a duty as a steward to serve and protect.
Contact:
Paul Murphy, President ASOPA
pmurf@me.com
Daniel Laufer, Vice President ASOPA
LauferASO@aol.com
Jessica Oudin
JSOudin@gmail.com
Facebook: ATL Symphony Musicians
Twitter: @ATLSymMusicians
www.atlsymphonymusicians.com
Atlanta, GA, October 3, 2014
During the many months of negotiations that preceded the present lockout of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Musicians by the Woodruff Arts Center (WAC), numerous sources within the WAC shared with the Musicians several long-term strategic plan ideas for the ASO that were being quietly discussed among WAC Governing Board members. If implemented, these plans would permanently downsize the Grammy award-winning Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, destroying the prestigious reputation it has earned through decades of professional excellence.
During the summer of 2013, it was suggested multiple times both by Stanley Romanstein, the recently departed President and CEO of the ASO, and Virginia Hepner, the WAC’s current President and CEO, that the number of full-time tenured musicians of the ASO should be permanently reduced, and resulting vacancies could be filled with alumni from the ASO’s Talent Development Program (TDP), who would perform in an “internship” capacity. This suggestion was meant to replicate the design of the New World Symphony – a program dedicated to preparing highly gifted graduates of distinguished music programs for leadership roles in professional orchestras and ensembles around the world. In addition to elevating the TDP – and capitalizing on the funding that educational programs such as the New World Symphony and TDP sometimes enjoy – this proposal was designed to reduce musician expenses; the WAC/ASO expected to give these “interns” a small stipend for their efforts, instead of salary and benefits at all commensurate with that of full-time ASO Musicians.
In March of 2014, ASO Board Chair Karole Lloyd suggested to the ASOPA committee a two-tiered salary system, relegating all new members of the ASO to a severely reduced compensation package for the duration of their “probationary” periods with the Orchestra. Unlike in other professions, orchestra musicians are not hired with the expectation that they will grow into their jobs; a musician unable to consistently perform at the highest artistic level will likely not even win an audition, let alone achieve tenure. To demand that one musician be paid substantially less than his or her colleagues, all while performing the same work under the same intense pressure, exposes a profound deficit of understanding of professional musicianship on the part of the ASO’s Board Chair, Karole Lloyd.
Numerous ASO staff and Board members have told us that these ideas seem to have originated with the leadership of the Woodruff Arts Center Governing Board, including Board Chair Douglas Hertz. Mr. Hertz, who has a fine record of philanthropic work, also has an unfortunate history of trying to eliminate tenured positions within a workforce to reduce expenses.
Douglas Hertz was serving on the Tulane University Board of Administrators when Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans in 2005. In response to the financial problems the hurricane caused, Tulane then-President Scott Cowan proposed to eliminate tenured faculty at the university, and replace existing faculty members with less expensive, non-tenured new hires. This action was supported by the Tulane Board of Administrators, including Douglas Hertz, and the despite numerous lawsuits that ensued, notifications of release were issued to approximately 200 faculty members in December 2005. This action led to the immediate censure of Tulane University by the American Association of University Professors. (http://www.aaup.org/article/developments-relating-censure-association - .VCq5eb74vlJ)
Mr. Hertz’s Tulane University scenario is strikingly similar not only to the two strategic plan ideas described earlier for the ASO, but it also foreshadows one of the conditions of the “Last, Best, and Final Offer” that the WAC/ASO emailed to ASO Musicians on September 5, 2014. In this offer, the WAC proposed a “voluntary retirement incentive” in the amount of $150,000 to any Musician who had given over 30 years of service to the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. This offer, in conjunction with the WAC’s refusal to stipulate any minimum number of players – or complement size – required by the ASO, is a thinly veiled attempt to reduce the size of the orchestra, and reduce the costs associated with more established, longer-serving Musicians. This element of the WAC’s proposal also paves the way for the creation of the “internship” orchestra that was suggested earlier; by steadfastly adhering to the need for a “flexible complement,” as the WAC has done in every one of its proposals, it is entirely possible that the WAC Governing Board Leadership is laying the foundation to replace seasoned Musicians with less experienced, less expensive “interns,” similar to what Mr. Hertz helped to do with the professors at Tulane University. Lastly, if every eligible Musician were to accept this buy-out, it would cost the WAC $3.75 million, which well exceeds the amount necessary over the expired agreement to fund the Musicians’ proposal of September 6th in its entirety.
Additionally, Douglas Hertz has taken pains to remind the community that the ASO has been posting deficits for twelve consecutive years, and that the ASO “cannot have what it cannot pay for.” However, those deficits cannot be attributed to the Musicians, whose compensation has historically come in UNDER budget. It is the job of the ASO & WAC Boards and their staffs to raise the funds to support the ASO. Have the fundraising goals been raised to meet the needs of the ASO? The Musicians’ job is always to perform at the highest level of artistry, which has been demonstrated year after year. Furthermore, the Musicians have made tremendous sacrifices over the years in efforts to mitigate the institution’s financial problems. In 2004, the Musicians negotiated six months early to relinquish a contractual raise, which resulted in the extension of the then-current wage for an additional year and a half. In 2009, the Musicians volunteered a 5% cut in compensation. In 2012, the Musicians agreed to a 15% reduction in annual salaries, a reduction of full-time Musicians, and a reduction in the length of our season.
If the WAC and its Governing Board Chair Douglas Hertz are truly only interested in achieving a balanced budget, the Musicians have demonstrated through their previous actions a willingness to be a part of the solution. In contrast, Douglas Hertz’s previous actions demonstrate a willingness to break the backs of employees to achieve further financial concessions. The past and present actions of Douglas Hertz suggest that he is more interested in reducing the number of professional musicians in the ASO than he is either in securing financial stability or in preserving the high artistic standards of the institution he has a duty as a steward to serve and protect.
Contact:
Paul Murphy, President ASOPA
pmurf@me.com
Daniel Laufer, Vice President ASOPA
LauferASO@aol.com
Jessica Oudin
JSOudin@gmail.com
Facebook: ATL Symphony Musicians
Twitter: @ATLSymMusicians
www.atlsymphonymusicians.com
AJC EXCLUSIVE
Woodruff board leader discusses Atlanta Symphony crisis
Posted: 1:43 p.m. Friday, Oct. 3, 2014
By Howard Pousner - The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Instead of making soul-stirring music to start its 70th anniversary season, the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra has produced mostly sour notes for the last four weeks.
The musicians were locked out by management for the second time in two years on Sept. 7 when the two sides could not reach accord on a new collective bargaining agreement, and a war of words commenced.
Management may control the purse strings, but the musicians have commandeered the social media. Constant posts and comments by the players and their supporters on their Facebook page and Tweets on their Twitter account have pushed management back on its heels. The barbs got so brutal on the ASO’s own Facebook page that management turned off commenting.
The ASO Players’ Association has issued multiple strongly worded statements to the media — accusing leaders of the ASO and its parent non-profit, the Woodruff Arts Center, of poor fund-raising, weak management and even malfeasance. Classical music blogs, some more opinion-oriented than journalistic in nature, have spread the accusations across the virtual universe. The ASO has released scattered statements of its own, usually with figures the other side immediately disputes.
A target of some of the harshest musician critiques, ASO president and CEO Stanley Romanstein, resigned on Monday, saying in a statement that he didn’t want to be an “impediment” when the sides restart negotiations.
The musicians considered Romanstein, who served as lead negotiator, a figurehead to start with, and have said in statements and posts that the real power resides with the Woodruff’s Governing Board.
Douglas Hertz, that board’s chairman, has not actively participated in the negotiations and was content to stay out of the media glare. But the steady stream of Players’ Association accusations, including that Woodruff leaders have engineered ASO deficits so as to extract more concessions from the locked-out musicians, have sparked him to speak publicly about the debacle for the first time.
In an exclusive interview with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Hertz firmly denied allegations that the Governing Board is willing to permanently damage the ASO for the sole purpose of halting its losses.
He said he was anxious for both sides to return to the business of music, and that one reason he was coming forward was to push the Players’ Association to accept federal mediation. In fact, an announcement that a mediator will restart negotiations is expected imminently.
Hertz, an Atlanta native and president and CEO of United Distributors, a beverage distribution company, grew up in a family grounded in philanthropy and arts patronage. The Alliance Theatre’s Hertz Stage was named for Hertz’s father, Jennings Hertz Jr. With a gift of $1 million, Doug Hertz endowed the ASO’s Jill Hertz Chair, named for his mother, who herself was an orchestra volunteer.
But while saying he believes the musicians and ASO and Woodruff leaders can forge a harmonious agreement with the mediator’s help, he also took some hard stands in the recent AJC interview.
On public support of the musicians and rebukes of ASO and Woodruff leaders in media coverage and blogs: “I disagree that the public has sided with the musicians. I think the artists’ friends have sided with the artists. But I think the corporate community and the philanthropic community understands, like any businessperson would, we’re not going to make an investment in a business that keeps losing money.”
On charges that Woodruff leaders want to turn the ASO into a minor-league ensemble to save money: “It’s frustrating, because the whole allegation, whether it’s by musicians or supporters of musicians, or journalists who want to take the musicians’ side — I’m using ‘journalists’ pretty loosely … for them to allege that the WAC doesn’t want a fantastic symphony orchestra, or the governing board doesn’t want to take care of the musicians, is so far off base if they looked at the facts.”
As evidence, Hertz mentioned the work of other Woodruff governing board members including retired BellSouth executive Jere Drummond, “whose raised millions of dollars for the ASO’s endowment” and Paul Garcia, the recently retired Global Payments chairman and CEO, who along with Delta Air Lines CEO Richard Anderson raised nearly $1.5 million over the last two years to reduce the orchestra’s deficit.
“It makes you wonder, you know,” Hertz said, “are we supporting a bunch of crazy people.”
On a major point he feels is lost in the contract issues: “The sad part of it is … there are not enough people that care. If the public cared maybe we wouldn’t be in this situation. When you’ve got less than 5,000 donors in a metropolitan area of 5 million, that’s my concern. We (board, administration and musicians) need to be getting together and figuring out together how do we grow support for the symphony.”
On the musicians’ response that management’s “last, best and final” offer before the lockout left them no room to negotiate: “Well, we are very interested in exploring alternatives. We are not, cannot and will not move from ending up with a balanced budget moving forward. But there are a lot of ways to get there, and if we were to do it together, we may be able to find a way.”
On if that means that leadership would reconsider its position ongiving management power over filling positions — essentially ultimate control of the size of the orchestra: “Sure. We’re not stuck on anything other than a balanced budget. We would love to protect the integrity of the art, and we want to do it in a financially responsible way.”
(The ASO Players’ Association issued a statement Friday afternoon charging that Hertz is more interested in cutting positions than he is “in securing financial stability or in preserving the high artistic standards of the institution he has a duty as a steward to serve and protect.”)
On feedback from the musicians, seconded by Spano and Runnicles, that management controlling the number of full-time players would destroy the ASO’s sound: “Well, it’s my impression that our symphony orchestra got the same artistic reviews over this past year as they have had in previous years. We had 116 separate musicians that played with our orchestra (who were) not part of our (88-musician) complement — 116 additional musicians who sat in just last year. Yet no one’s told me that artistically that we were any better or worse.”
On music director Robert Spano showing support for the musicians when maestros are typically neutral in labor disputes:“Again, we’re criticized for not wanting a great symphony, right? But we signed Robert to a five-year contract (that’s just beginning) with a raise. And Robert’s getting paid. And we signed (principal guest conductor) Donald Runnicles to a three-year contract. He’s getting paid. So don’t criticize WAC management or the WAC governing board for not wanting to put our money where our mouth is. Maybe Robert’s feeling a little bit guilty because he’s getting paid and the musicians aren’t. But he could be a big help in solving this.”
On how Spano could help: “Ideas (for developing a more sustainable model for the ASO). Encouragement of the musicians to come back and talk. But he hasn’t been particularly constructive to this point.”
On the governing board’s fiduciary responsibility to all four Woodruff divisions: “We’ve got a division of the arts center that threatens the ability of the other divisions (the Alliance Theatre, High Museum of Art and Arts for Learning) to produce the great work that they’re doing. We owe it to everybody to make sure that everybody is pulling their weight.”
On if he’s concerned that negative coverage of the lockout will set back fund-raising in the long run: “Sure, I mean if it lasts too long it will. (But) a contract ended. We lost over $2 million (in fiscal 2014). Don’t forget, when you have earned ticket revenues of only $5 million and have salaries and benefits just for the musicians of $10 million to $11 million, you’re losing money from the very beginning. …
“Every day, we lose money.”
The story so far
· The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra has racked up deficits for 12 consecutive years, but the push toward a sustainable model took new urgency when the accumulated debt rose to $23 million by the end of fiscal 2012, including $18 million borrowed against earnings on the orchestra’s endowment.
· Seeking significant concessions to halt the red ink, management locked out the musicians during tense 2012 collective bargainingagreement negotiations. After a month without pay, the players agreed with great rancor to a $5.2 million wage reduction over two years (an average of $14,000 annually for each) and other cuts.
· In 2013, Moody’s Investors Service downgraded the Woodruff’s credit outlook from stable to negative, largely because of the ASO debt.
· The orchestra finished the 2014 fiscal year with a $2 million operating deficit on a budget of $37 million.
· Eight months of negotiations for a new collective bargaining agreement this year proved unsuccessful. Management said its final proposal was for a four-year deal with an escalating salary increase topping out at 4.5 percent in the final year. The musicians propose a roughly 15 percent salary increase over four years —- basically the amount the players gave up 2012. Another point of division was health care, with the musicians being asked to shoulder a greater share of the cost, which they said would turn management’s raise offer into a net decrease.
· Management locked out the players on Sept. 7 after the the collective bargaining agreement expired without a new one in place, and canceled concerts through Nov. 8. Four days later, the ASO Players’ Association issued a statement that charged: “The Symphony has been placed in the position of turning deficits that have been engineered by the WAC with the intention and for the purpose of extracting more concessions from the Orchestra’s musicians.” (To read the entire statement, go tohttp://artsculture.blog.ajc.com/)
· ASO president and CEO Stanley Romanstein resigned Sept. 29, saying in a statement that he didn’t want to be an “impediment” to management reaching a labor agreement with ASO musicians. Management has pushed to bring in federal mediator to help restart negotiations, an idea to which the musicians said they are receptive, but an announcement has not been made.
HOWARD POUSNER
Woodruff board leader discusses Atlanta Symphony crisis
Posted: 1:43 p.m. Friday, Oct. 3, 2014
By Howard Pousner - The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Instead of making soul-stirring music to start its 70th anniversary season, the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra has produced mostly sour notes for the last four weeks.
The musicians were locked out by management for the second time in two years on Sept. 7 when the two sides could not reach accord on a new collective bargaining agreement, and a war of words commenced.
Management may control the purse strings, but the musicians have commandeered the social media. Constant posts and comments by the players and their supporters on their Facebook page and Tweets on their Twitter account have pushed management back on its heels. The barbs got so brutal on the ASO’s own Facebook page that management turned off commenting.
The ASO Players’ Association has issued multiple strongly worded statements to the media — accusing leaders of the ASO and its parent non-profit, the Woodruff Arts Center, of poor fund-raising, weak management and even malfeasance. Classical music blogs, some more opinion-oriented than journalistic in nature, have spread the accusations across the virtual universe. The ASO has released scattered statements of its own, usually with figures the other side immediately disputes.
A target of some of the harshest musician critiques, ASO president and CEO Stanley Romanstein, resigned on Monday, saying in a statement that he didn’t want to be an “impediment” when the sides restart negotiations.
The musicians considered Romanstein, who served as lead negotiator, a figurehead to start with, and have said in statements and posts that the real power resides with the Woodruff’s Governing Board.
Douglas Hertz, that board’s chairman, has not actively participated in the negotiations and was content to stay out of the media glare. But the steady stream of Players’ Association accusations, including that Woodruff leaders have engineered ASO deficits so as to extract more concessions from the locked-out musicians, have sparked him to speak publicly about the debacle for the first time.
In an exclusive interview with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Hertz firmly denied allegations that the Governing Board is willing to permanently damage the ASO for the sole purpose of halting its losses.
He said he was anxious for both sides to return to the business of music, and that one reason he was coming forward was to push the Players’ Association to accept federal mediation. In fact, an announcement that a mediator will restart negotiations is expected imminently.
Hertz, an Atlanta native and president and CEO of United Distributors, a beverage distribution company, grew up in a family grounded in philanthropy and arts patronage. The Alliance Theatre’s Hertz Stage was named for Hertz’s father, Jennings Hertz Jr. With a gift of $1 million, Doug Hertz endowed the ASO’s Jill Hertz Chair, named for his mother, who herself was an orchestra volunteer.
But while saying he believes the musicians and ASO and Woodruff leaders can forge a harmonious agreement with the mediator’s help, he also took some hard stands in the recent AJC interview.
On public support of the musicians and rebukes of ASO and Woodruff leaders in media coverage and blogs: “I disagree that the public has sided with the musicians. I think the artists’ friends have sided with the artists. But I think the corporate community and the philanthropic community understands, like any businessperson would, we’re not going to make an investment in a business that keeps losing money.”
On charges that Woodruff leaders want to turn the ASO into a minor-league ensemble to save money: “It’s frustrating, because the whole allegation, whether it’s by musicians or supporters of musicians, or journalists who want to take the musicians’ side — I’m using ‘journalists’ pretty loosely … for them to allege that the WAC doesn’t want a fantastic symphony orchestra, or the governing board doesn’t want to take care of the musicians, is so far off base if they looked at the facts.”
As evidence, Hertz mentioned the work of other Woodruff governing board members including retired BellSouth executive Jere Drummond, “whose raised millions of dollars for the ASO’s endowment” and Paul Garcia, the recently retired Global Payments chairman and CEO, who along with Delta Air Lines CEO Richard Anderson raised nearly $1.5 million over the last two years to reduce the orchestra’s deficit.
“It makes you wonder, you know,” Hertz said, “are we supporting a bunch of crazy people.”
On a major point he feels is lost in the contract issues: “The sad part of it is … there are not enough people that care. If the public cared maybe we wouldn’t be in this situation. When you’ve got less than 5,000 donors in a metropolitan area of 5 million, that’s my concern. We (board, administration and musicians) need to be getting together and figuring out together how do we grow support for the symphony.”
On the musicians’ response that management’s “last, best and final” offer before the lockout left them no room to negotiate: “Well, we are very interested in exploring alternatives. We are not, cannot and will not move from ending up with a balanced budget moving forward. But there are a lot of ways to get there, and if we were to do it together, we may be able to find a way.”
On if that means that leadership would reconsider its position ongiving management power over filling positions — essentially ultimate control of the size of the orchestra: “Sure. We’re not stuck on anything other than a balanced budget. We would love to protect the integrity of the art, and we want to do it in a financially responsible way.”
(The ASO Players’ Association issued a statement Friday afternoon charging that Hertz is more interested in cutting positions than he is “in securing financial stability or in preserving the high artistic standards of the institution he has a duty as a steward to serve and protect.”)
On feedback from the musicians, seconded by Spano and Runnicles, that management controlling the number of full-time players would destroy the ASO’s sound: “Well, it’s my impression that our symphony orchestra got the same artistic reviews over this past year as they have had in previous years. We had 116 separate musicians that played with our orchestra (who were) not part of our (88-musician) complement — 116 additional musicians who sat in just last year. Yet no one’s told me that artistically that we were any better or worse.”
On music director Robert Spano showing support for the musicians when maestros are typically neutral in labor disputes:“Again, we’re criticized for not wanting a great symphony, right? But we signed Robert to a five-year contract (that’s just beginning) with a raise. And Robert’s getting paid. And we signed (principal guest conductor) Donald Runnicles to a three-year contract. He’s getting paid. So don’t criticize WAC management or the WAC governing board for not wanting to put our money where our mouth is. Maybe Robert’s feeling a little bit guilty because he’s getting paid and the musicians aren’t. But he could be a big help in solving this.”
On how Spano could help: “Ideas (for developing a more sustainable model for the ASO). Encouragement of the musicians to come back and talk. But he hasn’t been particularly constructive to this point.”
On the governing board’s fiduciary responsibility to all four Woodruff divisions: “We’ve got a division of the arts center that threatens the ability of the other divisions (the Alliance Theatre, High Museum of Art and Arts for Learning) to produce the great work that they’re doing. We owe it to everybody to make sure that everybody is pulling their weight.”
On if he’s concerned that negative coverage of the lockout will set back fund-raising in the long run: “Sure, I mean if it lasts too long it will. (But) a contract ended. We lost over $2 million (in fiscal 2014). Don’t forget, when you have earned ticket revenues of only $5 million and have salaries and benefits just for the musicians of $10 million to $11 million, you’re losing money from the very beginning. …
“Every day, we lose money.”
The story so far
· The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra has racked up deficits for 12 consecutive years, but the push toward a sustainable model took new urgency when the accumulated debt rose to $23 million by the end of fiscal 2012, including $18 million borrowed against earnings on the orchestra’s endowment.
· Seeking significant concessions to halt the red ink, management locked out the musicians during tense 2012 collective bargainingagreement negotiations. After a month without pay, the players agreed with great rancor to a $5.2 million wage reduction over two years (an average of $14,000 annually for each) and other cuts.
· In 2013, Moody’s Investors Service downgraded the Woodruff’s credit outlook from stable to negative, largely because of the ASO debt.
· The orchestra finished the 2014 fiscal year with a $2 million operating deficit on a budget of $37 million.
· Eight months of negotiations for a new collective bargaining agreement this year proved unsuccessful. Management said its final proposal was for a four-year deal with an escalating salary increase topping out at 4.5 percent in the final year. The musicians propose a roughly 15 percent salary increase over four years —- basically the amount the players gave up 2012. Another point of division was health care, with the musicians being asked to shoulder a greater share of the cost, which they said would turn management’s raise offer into a net decrease.
· Management locked out the players on Sept. 7 after the the collective bargaining agreement expired without a new one in place, and canceled concerts through Nov. 8. Four days later, the ASO Players’ Association issued a statement that charged: “The Symphony has been placed in the position of turning deficits that have been engineered by the WAC with the intention and for the purpose of extracting more concessions from the Orchestra’s musicians.” (To read the entire statement, go tohttp://artsculture.blog.ajc.com/)
· ASO president and CEO Stanley Romanstein resigned Sept. 29, saying in a statement that he didn’t want to be an “impediment” to management reaching a labor agreement with ASO musicians. Management has pushed to bring in federal mediator to help restart negotiations, an idea to which the musicians said they are receptive, but an announcement has not been made.
HOWARD POUSNER
ASO musicians: Woodruff board chief Hertz willing to ‘break the backs of employees’ | October 3, 2014 by Howard Pousner
The heated words between leaders of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Players’ Association and ASO and Woodruff Arts Center management took a harsh turn on Friday, with the musicians’ union releasing a statement sharply critical of Woodruff Arts Center Governing Board Chairman Douglas Hertz.
The statement, included in its entirety below, charges that Hertz is more interested in cutting full-time ASO musician positions than he is “in securing financial stability or in preserving the high artistic standards of the institution he has a duty as a steward to serve and protect.”
The Woodruff responded shortly with a statement by its president and CEO, Virginia Hepner. “We are saddened that they are attempting to disparage the reputation of Doug Hertz, our chairman,” she said in the statement, also included in its entirety below. “He is widely recognized as one of the most successful and generous leaders in Atlanta and we feel extremely fortunate to have his ongoing support.”
In addition to his Woodruff role, Atlanta native Hertz, president and CEO of United Distributors, a beverage distribution company, is a board leader or member for organizations including Camp Twin Lakes, Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta and the Westminster Schools.
The volley of statements could be the final dissonant notes between the two sides for a while.
The U.S. Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service announced later Friday afternoon that it would provide mediation services in the contract dispute and musician lockout that has spanned four weeks.
Typically, mediators move quickly to make both sides save their words for the negotiating table and to stop staking positions in the press and on social media.
The statement, included in its entirety below, charges that Hertz is more interested in cutting full-time ASO musician positions than he is “in securing financial stability or in preserving the high artistic standards of the institution he has a duty as a steward to serve and protect.”
The Woodruff responded shortly with a statement by its president and CEO, Virginia Hepner. “We are saddened that they are attempting to disparage the reputation of Doug Hertz, our chairman,” she said in the statement, also included in its entirety below. “He is widely recognized as one of the most successful and generous leaders in Atlanta and we feel extremely fortunate to have his ongoing support.”
In addition to his Woodruff role, Atlanta native Hertz, president and CEO of United Distributors, a beverage distribution company, is a board leader or member for organizations including Camp Twin Lakes, Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta and the Westminster Schools.
The volley of statements could be the final dissonant notes between the two sides for a while.
The U.S. Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service announced later Friday afternoon that it would provide mediation services in the contract dispute and musician lockout that has spanned four weeks.
Typically, mediators move quickly to make both sides save their words for the negotiating table and to stop staking positions in the press and on social media.
Ever since Atlanta Symphony Orchestra musicians were locked out of Symphony Hall a month ago after failing to agree with management over the terms of a new collective bargaining agreement, critics have wondered who is calling the shots.
While ASO president and CEO Stanley Romanstein, who resigned last week, bore the brunt of musicians’ and the public’s ire, many have suspected his moves were dictated by the orchestra’s parent company, the Woodruff Arts Center (WAC).
Criticism of the WAC is now mounting as the stalemate between musicians and management reaches its second month. In an interview with ArtsATL, a longstanding ASO board member voiced his anguish at the WAC’s “takeover” of the orchestra, claiming WAC officials seemed more interested in balancing the budget than maintaining the ASO’s reputation as a world-class ensemble.
“I am very disappointed to see the Woodruff Arts Center so glibly and so willingly allow the quality and prestige of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra to go down the tubes,” said Dr. John W. Cooledge, a retired pediatrician who joined the ASO board in 1976 and now serves on the board of counselors, an advisory tier of the body. “Right now the feeling of the symphony board is frustration and anger and sadness. The ASO board no longer seems to have any power,” Cooledge said, noting that he had very little input in the lockout negotiations. “WAC is calling all the shots.”
The makeup of the ASO board has evolved over the years, Cooledge said. In 1976, when Cooledge joined the board, he said it consisted largely of ardent music lovers, “people who knew each other and worked in harmony.” Now it comprises corporate executives from Atlanta’s leading businesses: Delta Airlines, Coca-Cola, King & Spalding, Alston & Bird, Verizon Wireless, the Atlanta Hawks and Philips Arena.
“There was some lamenting a few years ago that some people were taking positions on the board primarily to put on their resumes,” Cooledge said.
While he acknowledged that the ASO board could have been proactive in asserting control — or, as he put it, “preventing a final takeover” — he said there had never, until recently, been any clear realization that WAC could move the orchestra into a second-rate organization.
“We thought the WAC was acting in the best interest of all its divisions,” he said. “We were caught napping.”
While there has been some discussion among board members, Cooledge said, that ASO separate from WAC and become an independent entity, the consensus is that there is no easy way out. The WAC has complete control of the symphony’s endowment. “I’m pessimistic about finding an easy solution,” Cooledge said. “We’ve sold ourselves to Woodruff.”
While ASO president and CEO Stanley Romanstein, who resigned last week, bore the brunt of musicians’ and the public’s ire, many have suspected his moves were dictated by the orchestra’s parent company, the Woodruff Arts Center (WAC).
Criticism of the WAC is now mounting as the stalemate between musicians and management reaches its second month. In an interview with ArtsATL, a longstanding ASO board member voiced his anguish at the WAC’s “takeover” of the orchestra, claiming WAC officials seemed more interested in balancing the budget than maintaining the ASO’s reputation as a world-class ensemble.
“I am very disappointed to see the Woodruff Arts Center so glibly and so willingly allow the quality and prestige of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra to go down the tubes,” said Dr. John W. Cooledge, a retired pediatrician who joined the ASO board in 1976 and now serves on the board of counselors, an advisory tier of the body. “Right now the feeling of the symphony board is frustration and anger and sadness. The ASO board no longer seems to have any power,” Cooledge said, noting that he had very little input in the lockout negotiations. “WAC is calling all the shots.”
The makeup of the ASO board has evolved over the years, Cooledge said. In 1976, when Cooledge joined the board, he said it consisted largely of ardent music lovers, “people who knew each other and worked in harmony.” Now it comprises corporate executives from Atlanta’s leading businesses: Delta Airlines, Coca-Cola, King & Spalding, Alston & Bird, Verizon Wireless, the Atlanta Hawks and Philips Arena.
“There was some lamenting a few years ago that some people were taking positions on the board primarily to put on their resumes,” Cooledge said.
While he acknowledged that the ASO board could have been proactive in asserting control — or, as he put it, “preventing a final takeover” — he said there had never, until recently, been any clear realization that WAC could move the orchestra into a second-rate organization.
“We thought the WAC was acting in the best interest of all its divisions,” he said. “We were caught napping.”
While there has been some discussion among board members, Cooledge said, that ASO separate from WAC and become an independent entity, the consensus is that there is no easy way out. The WAC has complete control of the symphony’s endowment. “I’m pessimistic about finding an easy solution,” Cooledge said. “We’ve sold ourselves to Woodruff.”
Karole Lloyd, ASO board chair
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Virginia Hepner, WAC’s president and CEO
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Douglas Hertz, chair of the WAC governing board
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Maybe Atlanta Symphony Should Lock Out Its Marketing Department Instead | October 2, 2104
MARKETING THE ARTS TO DEATH
How Lazy Language is Killing Culture
by Trevorodonnell.com
Presumably, the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra’s labor issues are the result of the same underlying forces that are affecting orchestras everywhere: diminishing audiences and diminishing community support. But if the organization is using amateur, old-fashioned, self-centered marketing practices that fail to produce desired results, it seems counterproductive to lock out the artists when locking out the administrators who make bad marketing decisions would probably have more productive long-term consequences.
Presumably, the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra’s labor issues are the result of the same underlying forces that are affecting orchestras everywhere: diminishing audiences and diminishing community support. But if the organization is using amateur, old-fashioned, self-centered marketing practices that fail to produce desired results, it seems counterproductive to lock out the artists when locking out the administrators who make bad marketing decisions would probably have more productive long-term consequences.
Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and the 12th man | October 2, 2014
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By Michael Schulder
How can the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra’s 12th Man be a game-changer? The 12th Man, in football parlance, refers to the fans. 11 men from each team are on the field. The 12th Man fills the stands. The home team feels its energy – and transfers that energy into its performance. Many of us who are closely following the ongoing developments at the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra – the ASO – are part of its collective 12th Man. We are its fans and supporters. Many of us are current donors. Others of us may become significant future donors. We recognize the immeasurable value that this artistically preeminent orchestra adds to our city. With no ASO performances on the horizon, and the symphony currently locked out of Symphony Hall, the 12th Man’s attention has turned to what’s happening off stage. We must be determined to help answer the question: how can we change the course of this current crisis from its lose-lose direction to a win-win? How can we change the game? |
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Romanstein Out, Eyes Turn to the WAC | September 30, 2014
And it is increasingly clear that the WAC is the real force behind the lockout.
This is hardly a new idea; the notion that the WAC is managing (or to be frank, mismanaging) the lockout is widely discussed around the country, including by the New York Times’ Michael Cooper.
This impression was amplified over the past week, as ASO board member Ron Antinori resigned, specifically citing the fact that the ASO board has been kept in the dark about the lockout and could do little about it. ArtsATL has more on this story:
“I didn’t feel that my voice and my opinions as [an ASO] board member had much of an effect on what was happening,” Antinori told ArtsATL, noting that he did not know that the management was planning to lock musicians out until just two days before the deadline for contract negotiations. “I am not privy to what WAC’s motivation is. That’s the elephant in the room. All I know is what I’ve heard: ‘We need to balance the budget.’ Am I suspicious? I honestly just don’t know. There does seem to be a mentality of ‘We don’t care if we destroy the orchestra as long as we balance the budget.’”
So for good or for bad, I think we can all agree that the real power broker here is the WAC.
And that raises a question. If the real power lies with the WAC board, does Romanstein’s departure mean anything? It is simply a quick public relations move designed to create a sense of momentum? Or a delaying tactic? Was he simply cast off for being unable to control the situation? Will the WAC become more directly involved, or start to act more openly? It is far too early to tell.
But it does mean the WAC bears close scrutiny.
This is hardly a new idea; the notion that the WAC is managing (or to be frank, mismanaging) the lockout is widely discussed around the country, including by the New York Times’ Michael Cooper.
This impression was amplified over the past week, as ASO board member Ron Antinori resigned, specifically citing the fact that the ASO board has been kept in the dark about the lockout and could do little about it. ArtsATL has more on this story:
“I didn’t feel that my voice and my opinions as [an ASO] board member had much of an effect on what was happening,” Antinori told ArtsATL, noting that he did not know that the management was planning to lock musicians out until just two days before the deadline for contract negotiations. “I am not privy to what WAC’s motivation is. That’s the elephant in the room. All I know is what I’ve heard: ‘We need to balance the budget.’ Am I suspicious? I honestly just don’t know. There does seem to be a mentality of ‘We don’t care if we destroy the orchestra as long as we balance the budget.’”
So for good or for bad, I think we can all agree that the real power broker here is the WAC.
And that raises a question. If the real power lies with the WAC board, does Romanstein’s departure mean anything? It is simply a quick public relations move designed to create a sense of momentum? Or a delaying tactic? Was he simply cast off for being unable to control the situation? Will the WAC become more directly involved, or start to act more openly? It is far too early to tell.
But it does mean the WAC bears close scrutiny.
ATL Symphony Musicians respond to the resignation of CEO and President of the ASO, Dr. Stanley Romanstein.
Press Statement 9-29-14
Atlanta, GA September 29, 2014
This afternoon the Musicians of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra learned of the resignation of ASO President and CEO Dr. Stanley Romanstein. The Musicians remain locked out by WAC/ASO management since September 7 and have been told their health coverage will be cancelled in two days. They hope this decision will lead to an agreement and end the lockout, and that the ASO Board will seek the help of a proven and experienced symphonic arts leader with an outstanding record of fundraising, marketing, and innovation.
This is a good opportunity for the WAC/ASO and Atlanta to take heed of a statement made by the former President of the Woodruff Arts Center, Dr. Charles E. Glassick, on its 25th anniversary on November 8, 1993: “It was never a part of Mr. Woodruff’s vision that we would reach a plateau and then level off; it was never a part of Mr. Woodruff’s dream that we would achieve a certain level of quality, and that would be good enough for Atlanta. No, today as in the past the Woodruff Arts Center is on a continuous search for quality, where excellence is our only yardstick. And we invite you to join us on that quest.”
Contact: Paul Murphy, President ASOPA
pmurf@me.com
Daniel Laufer, Vice President ASOPA
LauferASO@aol.com
Jessica Oudin
Jsoudin@gmail.com
Press Statement 9-29-14
Atlanta, GA September 29, 2014
This afternoon the Musicians of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra learned of the resignation of ASO President and CEO Dr. Stanley Romanstein. The Musicians remain locked out by WAC/ASO management since September 7 and have been told their health coverage will be cancelled in two days. They hope this decision will lead to an agreement and end the lockout, and that the ASO Board will seek the help of a proven and experienced symphonic arts leader with an outstanding record of fundraising, marketing, and innovation.
This is a good opportunity for the WAC/ASO and Atlanta to take heed of a statement made by the former President of the Woodruff Arts Center, Dr. Charles E. Glassick, on its 25th anniversary on November 8, 1993: “It was never a part of Mr. Woodruff’s vision that we would reach a plateau and then level off; it was never a part of Mr. Woodruff’s dream that we would achieve a certain level of quality, and that would be good enough for Atlanta. No, today as in the past the Woodruff Arts Center is on a continuous search for quality, where excellence is our only yardstick. And we invite you to join us on that quest.”
Contact: Paul Murphy, President ASOPA
pmurf@me.com
Daniel Laufer, Vice President ASOPA
LauferASO@aol.com
Jessica Oudin
Jsoudin@gmail.com
IMPORTANT NEWS! ROMANSTEIN RESIGNS
Contact:
Caroline Duffy
Jackson Spalding
404-724-2515 (o) or 404-713-2984 (c)
Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Announces Resignation Of President Stanley Romanstein; Terry Neal Named Interim President
ATLANTA – The Board of Directors of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra (ASO) today announced that Stanley Romanstein, Ph.D., has resigned as President and CEO of the Orchestra, effective immediately.
Following Dr. Romanstein’s decision, the Executive Committee of the ASO Board appointed Terry Neal, a current ASO Board member and a retired executive of The Coca-Cola Company, to serve as president of the ASO on an interim basis. Mr. Neal will manage the day-to-day operations of the Orchestra until a permanent replacement can be found. Dr. Romanstein will be available to the organization through the end of October to assure a smooth transition.
“I believe that my continued leadership of the ASO would be an impediment to our reaching a new labor agreement with the ASO’s musicians,” Dr. Romanstein said.
The previous collective bargaining agreement between the ASO and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Players Association expired September 6.
Karole Lloyd, chair of the Board of Directors of the Symphony, said, “The ASO Board would like to thank Stanley for all of his contributions to the Orchestra over the last four and half years. We appreciate the passion he has brought to advancing the mission of the ASO.”
Virginia Hepner, president and CEO of the Woodruff Arts Center, said that Dr. Romanstein’s resignation does not change the financial challenges facing the Symphony nor signal any shift in the key issues being addressed in the collective bargaining agreement process.
“The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra is a treasured part of our community,” Ms. Hepner said. “We want to make sure it can continue to flourish in the future.
To do that, we need to find ways to broaden our base of patrons and supporters and address the deficits we’ve had for 12 consecutive years. All of us at the Arts Center are committed to working with the musicians to find a solution.”
Ms. Hepner urged the musicians to resume negotiations with the ASO negotiating team so that a new agreement can be reached and the Symphony’s 70th season can begin. Last week, the ASO announced that, without a new collective bargaining agreement in place, it had cancelled concerts from opening night, September 25, through November 8. If a new contract is ratified before November 8, the Symphony will begin performances as soon as possible.
Mr. Neal was elected to the ASO Board in 2013. As a long-time supporter and patron of the Symphony, he has been an active participant in ASO fundraising and marketing efforts. Since his election to the ASO Board, he has represented the ASO on Arts Center-wide development initiatives.
Mr. Neal retired from The Coca-Cola Company in 2009 after 30 years, most recently serving as Vice President of the Latin America Group and Director of Customer Development. Throughout his career, both domestically and internationally, his focus was on building collaborative business relationships with large, complex customers and developing the capabilities of senior level account directors.
Contact:
Caroline Duffy
Jackson Spalding
404-724-2515 (o) or 404-713-2984 (c)
Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Announces Resignation Of President Stanley Romanstein; Terry Neal Named Interim President
ATLANTA – The Board of Directors of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra (ASO) today announced that Stanley Romanstein, Ph.D., has resigned as President and CEO of the Orchestra, effective immediately.
Following Dr. Romanstein’s decision, the Executive Committee of the ASO Board appointed Terry Neal, a current ASO Board member and a retired executive of The Coca-Cola Company, to serve as president of the ASO on an interim basis. Mr. Neal will manage the day-to-day operations of the Orchestra until a permanent replacement can be found. Dr. Romanstein will be available to the organization through the end of October to assure a smooth transition.
“I believe that my continued leadership of the ASO would be an impediment to our reaching a new labor agreement with the ASO’s musicians,” Dr. Romanstein said.
The previous collective bargaining agreement between the ASO and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Players Association expired September 6.
Karole Lloyd, chair of the Board of Directors of the Symphony, said, “The ASO Board would like to thank Stanley for all of his contributions to the Orchestra over the last four and half years. We appreciate the passion he has brought to advancing the mission of the ASO.”
Virginia Hepner, president and CEO of the Woodruff Arts Center, said that Dr. Romanstein’s resignation does not change the financial challenges facing the Symphony nor signal any shift in the key issues being addressed in the collective bargaining agreement process.
“The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra is a treasured part of our community,” Ms. Hepner said. “We want to make sure it can continue to flourish in the future.
To do that, we need to find ways to broaden our base of patrons and supporters and address the deficits we’ve had for 12 consecutive years. All of us at the Arts Center are committed to working with the musicians to find a solution.”
Ms. Hepner urged the musicians to resume negotiations with the ASO negotiating team so that a new agreement can be reached and the Symphony’s 70th season can begin. Last week, the ASO announced that, without a new collective bargaining agreement in place, it had cancelled concerts from opening night, September 25, through November 8. If a new contract is ratified before November 8, the Symphony will begin performances as soon as possible.
Mr. Neal was elected to the ASO Board in 2013. As a long-time supporter and patron of the Symphony, he has been an active participant in ASO fundraising and marketing efforts. Since his election to the ASO Board, he has represented the ASO on Arts Center-wide development initiatives.
Mr. Neal retired from The Coca-Cola Company in 2009 after 30 years, most recently serving as Vice President of the Latin America Group and Director of Customer Development. Throughout his career, both domestically and internationally, his focus was on building collaborative business relationships with large, complex customers and developing the capabilities of senior level account directors.
Press Statement 9-29-14
Atlanta, GA September 29, 2014
On September 25th, 2014 Woodruff Arts Center (WAC) spokesman Randy Donaldson stated that, “The bottom line is this: the leadership of the arts center wants financial and artistic success for the ASO. Any implication to the contrary is absolutely wrong.” (http://www.artsatl.com/2014/09/news-aso-cancels-performances-board-member-resigns-protest-lockout/) However, the accounting practices of the Woodruff Arts Center in general – and the specific actions of Virginia Hepner in particular – belie that claim and instead suggest that the WAC has zero interest in fostering the artistic success of the ASO. During Ms. Hepner’s tenure, millions of dollars in contributed revenues have been manipulated and diverted from supporting the operations that fund the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra - the very institution that generates the greatest prestige and the greatest revenue for the WAC. Instead, the ASO has been made to show continuing deficits, which could and should have been avoided in FY14.
ASO Board members received materials at their September 19, 2014 meeting that portrayed the ASO as responsible for 23% of the WAC’s total earned revenue. However, Virginia Hepner stated separately that ASO Presents — part of the ASO — brings in an additional 20% of the WAC’s earned revenue, making the ASO responsible for 43% of the WAC’s overall earned revenue. It is intentionally misleading for Ms. Hepner to represent the ASO and ASO Presents as two unrelated divisions: ASO Presents was created as a part of the ASO for the purpose of supporting the “core” product – the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra – and is considered a part of the ASO. Total FY14 ASO ticket revenues, including concerts for both ASO and ASO Presents, generated over $19 million. The ASO thus accounts for almost half of all earned revenue received by the WAC.
It is also misleading for Ms. Hepner to state that, as a separate entity, the WAC receives 26% of the total contributed revenues. It is no secret that the WAC is the recipient of the great majority of corporate funding through its Annual Corporate Campaign, which has shown increased success over the last few years. Such donations are not meant to fund the WAC per se, but rather are meant to support the artistic divisions of the Woodruff Arts Center, including its largest founding member of the WAC – the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. And yet, the WAC Endowment’s allocation to the ASO has seen a 65% drop from $2.236M in FY07 to around $800,000 in FY15.
Aside from the WAC charts that falsely show the ASO and ASO Presents as separate divisions within the WAC, one has to wonder why the combined ASO receives only 31% of the total contributed revenues to the WAC, while producing 43% of the WAC’s earned revenue.
In what appears to be an effort to further diminish the funding allocated to the ASO, Ms. Hepner chose to donate the funds received from the 2014 sale of the 14th Street Playhouse to the Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta (CFGA) – an organization on whose Board of Directors she served at the time of her appointment to the WAC in 2011. If the WAC truly wanted to safeguard the financial success of the ASO, perhaps even a portion of the proceeds from this sale could have been directed to the ASO’s bottom line rather than to another organization. Hepner’s actions demonstrate that the leadership of the Woodruff Arts Center apparently does not wish financial success for the ASO, contrary to the assertion of its spokesman, Randy Donaldson.
If the President of the Woodruff Arts Center can be allowed to steer such significant donations to honor her former business associations, one must question to what degree Woodruff Arts Center executives are able to steer business, favors, and funding to corporations in which they have a personal stake.
Contact: Paul Murphy, President ASOPA
pmurf@me.com
Daniel Laufer, Vice President ASOPA
LauferASO@aol.com
Jessica Oudin
Jsoudin@gmail.com
Atlanta, GA September 29, 2014
On September 25th, 2014 Woodruff Arts Center (WAC) spokesman Randy Donaldson stated that, “The bottom line is this: the leadership of the arts center wants financial and artistic success for the ASO. Any implication to the contrary is absolutely wrong.” (http://www.artsatl.com/2014/09/news-aso-cancels-performances-board-member-resigns-protest-lockout/) However, the accounting practices of the Woodruff Arts Center in general – and the specific actions of Virginia Hepner in particular – belie that claim and instead suggest that the WAC has zero interest in fostering the artistic success of the ASO. During Ms. Hepner’s tenure, millions of dollars in contributed revenues have been manipulated and diverted from supporting the operations that fund the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra - the very institution that generates the greatest prestige and the greatest revenue for the WAC. Instead, the ASO has been made to show continuing deficits, which could and should have been avoided in FY14.
ASO Board members received materials at their September 19, 2014 meeting that portrayed the ASO as responsible for 23% of the WAC’s total earned revenue. However, Virginia Hepner stated separately that ASO Presents — part of the ASO — brings in an additional 20% of the WAC’s earned revenue, making the ASO responsible for 43% of the WAC’s overall earned revenue. It is intentionally misleading for Ms. Hepner to represent the ASO and ASO Presents as two unrelated divisions: ASO Presents was created as a part of the ASO for the purpose of supporting the “core” product – the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra – and is considered a part of the ASO. Total FY14 ASO ticket revenues, including concerts for both ASO and ASO Presents, generated over $19 million. The ASO thus accounts for almost half of all earned revenue received by the WAC.
It is also misleading for Ms. Hepner to state that, as a separate entity, the WAC receives 26% of the total contributed revenues. It is no secret that the WAC is the recipient of the great majority of corporate funding through its Annual Corporate Campaign, which has shown increased success over the last few years. Such donations are not meant to fund the WAC per se, but rather are meant to support the artistic divisions of the Woodruff Arts Center, including its largest founding member of the WAC – the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. And yet, the WAC Endowment’s allocation to the ASO has seen a 65% drop from $2.236M in FY07 to around $800,000 in FY15.
Aside from the WAC charts that falsely show the ASO and ASO Presents as separate divisions within the WAC, one has to wonder why the combined ASO receives only 31% of the total contributed revenues to the WAC, while producing 43% of the WAC’s earned revenue.
In what appears to be an effort to further diminish the funding allocated to the ASO, Ms. Hepner chose to donate the funds received from the 2014 sale of the 14th Street Playhouse to the Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta (CFGA) – an organization on whose Board of Directors she served at the time of her appointment to the WAC in 2011. If the WAC truly wanted to safeguard the financial success of the ASO, perhaps even a portion of the proceeds from this sale could have been directed to the ASO’s bottom line rather than to another organization. Hepner’s actions demonstrate that the leadership of the Woodruff Arts Center apparently does not wish financial success for the ASO, contrary to the assertion of its spokesman, Randy Donaldson.
If the President of the Woodruff Arts Center can be allowed to steer such significant donations to honor her former business associations, one must question to what degree Woodruff Arts Center executives are able to steer business, favors, and funding to corporations in which they have a personal stake.
Contact: Paul Murphy, President ASOPA
pmurf@me.com
Daniel Laufer, Vice President ASOPA
LauferASO@aol.com
Jessica Oudin
Jsoudin@gmail.com
Our Orchestra, Our Community! | September 28, 2014 By Erik Herndon @ ErikHerndon.com
Like many of you, I am closely following the lockout of our Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Musicians. It is a debacle, it is disturbing, and it should bother you!
Our orchestra isn’t just music, instruments, repertoire, boards, budgets, and fundraising; it is hope and inspiration, it is passion and craft, it is the example of what is possible for our students and the livelihood that supports the sons, daughters, mothers, fathers, lovers, and patrons of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra.
As you read, a young family expecting a child may have to relocate to provide for their family’s well being because their job with the orchestra is in jeopardy.
As you contemplate, an artist’s health is being compromised and their ability to afford healthcare and pay their bills is at risk.
You cannot balance the operating costs of an organization without balancing the purpose and meaning of the organization itself.
Our musicians lift us up through their talent and devotion to glorious music. We need a governing body that will lift these beautiful musicians up and sustain their commitment to nurturing our community through performance and outreach.
We who teach rely on the example and effort of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. We bring our students to performances, we recommend our students to Talent Development and the Youth Symphony, we support our peers as they perform, and we attend concerts to inspire and sustain us throughout the school year.
This conversation about profit and loss, of boards and budgets, of meeting targets and hardening resolves is offensive to our spirits.
We are actually experiencing a crisis in leadership and vision. With all due respect to the governing board of the ASO; what vision do you have for our symphony? What incentives and encouragement are you offering for the talent that your leadership should support. Are you doing enough to market, promote, and showcase the orchestra?
The accomplishments and capability of our orchestra is well documented and celebrated all over the world. If the leadership of the ASO cannot celebrate with us, as members of our community, if they cannot make their own sacrifices, honor their commitments, and create lasting support for our symphony they should step aside and make way for leaders whose vision would return our attention to the dedication of the musicians and the music they share.
We are a prosperous city and a generous people; we have the resources to sustain a world class symphony. It is time for the board to remember how capable they are of creating and sustaining a better environment for all to prosper.
Our orchestra isn’t just music, instruments, repertoire, boards, budgets, and fundraising; it is hope and inspiration, it is passion and craft, it is the example of what is possible for our students and the livelihood that supports the sons, daughters, mothers, fathers, lovers, and patrons of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra.
As you read, a young family expecting a child may have to relocate to provide for their family’s well being because their job with the orchestra is in jeopardy.
As you contemplate, an artist’s health is being compromised and their ability to afford healthcare and pay their bills is at risk.
You cannot balance the operating costs of an organization without balancing the purpose and meaning of the organization itself.
Our musicians lift us up through their talent and devotion to glorious music. We need a governing body that will lift these beautiful musicians up and sustain their commitment to nurturing our community through performance and outreach.
We who teach rely on the example and effort of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. We bring our students to performances, we recommend our students to Talent Development and the Youth Symphony, we support our peers as they perform, and we attend concerts to inspire and sustain us throughout the school year.
This conversation about profit and loss, of boards and budgets, of meeting targets and hardening resolves is offensive to our spirits.
We are actually experiencing a crisis in leadership and vision. With all due respect to the governing board of the ASO; what vision do you have for our symphony? What incentives and encouragement are you offering for the talent that your leadership should support. Are you doing enough to market, promote, and showcase the orchestra?
The accomplishments and capability of our orchestra is well documented and celebrated all over the world. If the leadership of the ASO cannot celebrate with us, as members of our community, if they cannot make their own sacrifices, honor their commitments, and create lasting support for our symphony they should step aside and make way for leaders whose vision would return our attention to the dedication of the musicians and the music they share.
We are a prosperous city and a generous people; we have the resources to sustain a world class symphony. It is time for the board to remember how capable they are of creating and sustaining a better environment for all to prosper.
Two sides in Atlanta Symphony dispute whether they’re heading into arbitration | September 28, 2014
By Howard Pousner
The two sides in the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra labor dispute haven’t been able to agree on much as the musician lockout enters its fourth week. But the crossed signals reached a new level of confusion on Saturday night when the administration and players released contradictory statements about their acceptance — or lack thereof — of the help of a federal mediator to restart stalled negotiations.
Early Saturday evening, an Atlanta Symphony Orchestra spokesperson emailed media a release that said that management and the ASO Players’ Association have agreed to resume collective bargaining agreement discussions using federal mediator Allison Beck. The two sides have not talked since the musicians were locked out when a new collective bargaining agreement could not be reached by midnight Sept. 7.
“We are pleased that after weeks of an open offer, the musicians’ union has accepted mediation and we’re looking forward to getting back to the negotiating table,” ASO president and CEO Stanley Romanstein said in the statement. “We are ready to resolve our differences and start the ASO’s 70th anniversary season.”
Not so fast, leaders of the ASO Players’ Association responded in a statement of their own, issued just before midnight. That statement, signed by Players’ Association president Paul Murphy and vice president Daniel Laufer, said they had expressed interest in talking with Beck last Monday, to generally discuss questions about the mediation process, but had not heard from her and had not yet decided to participate.
“We received a formal request for mediation on Monday, September 22nd at 10:55am from WAC/ASO management,” the Players’ Association statement explained. “Three hours later, we accepted the suggestion to speak with Ms. Allison Beck, the Acting Director of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, and were told that FMCS officials would be contacting us accordingly, which has not happened yet. …
“The musicians are happy to speak with FMCS Director Beck about pathways forward when she is able to be in touch with us,” the statement from ASO musicians Murphy and Laufer continued. “There is as yet no further agreement about the process.”
The two sides in the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra labor dispute haven’t been able to agree on much as the musician lockout enters its fourth week. But the crossed signals reached a new level of confusion on Saturday night when the administration and players released contradictory statements about their acceptance — or lack thereof — of the help of a federal mediator to restart stalled negotiations.
Early Saturday evening, an Atlanta Symphony Orchestra spokesperson emailed media a release that said that management and the ASO Players’ Association have agreed to resume collective bargaining agreement discussions using federal mediator Allison Beck. The two sides have not talked since the musicians were locked out when a new collective bargaining agreement could not be reached by midnight Sept. 7.
“We are pleased that after weeks of an open offer, the musicians’ union has accepted mediation and we’re looking forward to getting back to the negotiating table,” ASO president and CEO Stanley Romanstein said in the statement. “We are ready to resolve our differences and start the ASO’s 70th anniversary season.”
Not so fast, leaders of the ASO Players’ Association responded in a statement of their own, issued just before midnight. That statement, signed by Players’ Association president Paul Murphy and vice president Daniel Laufer, said they had expressed interest in talking with Beck last Monday, to generally discuss questions about the mediation process, but had not heard from her and had not yet decided to participate.
“We received a formal request for mediation on Monday, September 22nd at 10:55am from WAC/ASO management,” the Players’ Association statement explained. “Three hours later, we accepted the suggestion to speak with Ms. Allison Beck, the Acting Director of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, and were told that FMCS officials would be contacting us accordingly, which has not happened yet. …
“The musicians are happy to speak with FMCS Director Beck about pathways forward when she is able to be in touch with us,” the statement from ASO musicians Murphy and Laufer continued. “There is as yet no further agreement about the process.”
The Atlanta Symphony Lockout Continues, Musicians Picket On Peachtree Street | September 28, 2014 7:35 AM ET
by Adam Ragusea
A stingy market, unsupportive politicians — to the musicians on the picket line, these sound like the excuses of a symphony management that just hasn't tried hard enough. Principal flutist Christina Smith is on the union's negotiating committee.
"The musicians refuse to accept the premise that everything has been done to excellently fundraise for this institution," Smith says. "When you look at Atlanta, the size of this city — drive around this city, there is money everywhere."
Smith points out that, despite the deficits, Romanstein has been awarded bonuses by the Woodruff Arts Center. The symphony's parent nonprofit also includes an art museum and a theater company. Smith thinks the Woodruff's real goal is to shrink the Atlanta Symphony from an international powerhouse to a less expensive regional orchestra, like it was before legendary conductor Robert Shaw took over in 1967.
Downsizing could cause musicians to leave for better-paying, more prestigious gigs, as could the lockout itself, says Drew McManus, an orchestra consultant in Chicago.
"Some of the other labor disputes in the country have demonstrated that, yes, musicians can and will leave to get different jobs," McManus says. "And [the orchestras] do have a harder time attracting and maintaining quality musicians of the level they had previously established."
That may explain why the ASO's current conductor, Robert Spano, and its principal guest conductor, Donald Runnicles, wrote a letter urging management not to balance the books on the backs of players. Conductors traditionally stay out of labor fights, but the maestros felt they had to, they write, "speak out lest we fail in our duty to preserve the extraordinary legacy that has passed into our hands."
A stingy market, unsupportive politicians — to the musicians on the picket line, these sound like the excuses of a symphony management that just hasn't tried hard enough. Principal flutist Christina Smith is on the union's negotiating committee.
"The musicians refuse to accept the premise that everything has been done to excellently fundraise for this institution," Smith says. "When you look at Atlanta, the size of this city — drive around this city, there is money everywhere."
Smith points out that, despite the deficits, Romanstein has been awarded bonuses by the Woodruff Arts Center. The symphony's parent nonprofit also includes an art museum and a theater company. Smith thinks the Woodruff's real goal is to shrink the Atlanta Symphony from an international powerhouse to a less expensive regional orchestra, like it was before legendary conductor Robert Shaw took over in 1967.
Downsizing could cause musicians to leave for better-paying, more prestigious gigs, as could the lockout itself, says Drew McManus, an orchestra consultant in Chicago.
"Some of the other labor disputes in the country have demonstrated that, yes, musicians can and will leave to get different jobs," McManus says. "And [the orchestras] do have a harder time attracting and maintaining quality musicians of the level they had previously established."
That may explain why the ASO's current conductor, Robert Spano, and its principal guest conductor, Donald Runnicles, wrote a letter urging management not to balance the books on the backs of players. Conductors traditionally stay out of labor fights, but the maestros felt they had to, they write, "speak out lest we fail in our duty to preserve the extraordinary legacy that has passed into our hands."
Breaking News: Mayor Reed, Spano urge ASO, musicians to end the “deafening silence” | September 26, 2014 By Jenny Jarvie
Three weeks after the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra’s management locked musicians out of symphony facilities, Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed and ASO music director Robert Spano both released statements today that plead for a resolution to the conflict.
“World-class cities have world-class orchestras,” Reed said in a statement to ArtsATL, noting that the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra has released numerous Grammy-winning recordings and has “a reputation for excellence across the globe.”
Last week, the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra canceled the beginning of its 70th anniversary season — including Thursday’s scheduled opening night concert featuring pianist Jeremy Denk — through November 8. Hundreds of musicians, chorus members and supporters gathered outside the Woodruff Arts Center yesterday evening for a protest event billed as “A Deafening Silence.”
While no new negotiations are taking place, the musicians agreed earlier this week to work with a federal mediator, as suggested by ASO management. Reed’s senior adviser, Melissa Mullinax, said she is trying to schedule a meeting between Reed and Spano, and perhaps representatives of the musicians, next week.
While Reed acknowledged that the ASO is facing significant challenges — diminished financial support for orchestras from both public and private funding sources — that have forced many orchestras across the country to cut costs and adjust their operating models, he appealed for musicians and management to work together.
“Tough negotiations do not have to result in a strike or lockout,” Reed said. “I urge both sides to return to the bargaining table, realizing that the ASO’s financial solvency and musical excellence are intertwined, not opposing forces. A protracted lockout is not good for the ASO and not good for Atlanta.”
“World-class cities have world-class orchestras,” Reed said in a statement to ArtsATL, noting that the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra has released numerous Grammy-winning recordings and has “a reputation for excellence across the globe.”
Last week, the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra canceled the beginning of its 70th anniversary season — including Thursday’s scheduled opening night concert featuring pianist Jeremy Denk — through November 8. Hundreds of musicians, chorus members and supporters gathered outside the Woodruff Arts Center yesterday evening for a protest event billed as “A Deafening Silence.”
While no new negotiations are taking place, the musicians agreed earlier this week to work with a federal mediator, as suggested by ASO management. Reed’s senior adviser, Melissa Mullinax, said she is trying to schedule a meeting between Reed and Spano, and perhaps representatives of the musicians, next week.
While Reed acknowledged that the ASO is facing significant challenges — diminished financial support for orchestras from both public and private funding sources — that have forced many orchestras across the country to cut costs and adjust their operating models, he appealed for musicians and management to work together.
“Tough negotiations do not have to result in a strike or lockout,” Reed said. “I urge both sides to return to the bargaining table, realizing that the ASO’s financial solvency and musical excellence are intertwined, not opposing forces. A protracted lockout is not good for the ASO and not good for Atlanta.”
Atlanta Symphony musicians protest on what would have been opening night. | Posted: 12:26 am Friday, September 26th, 2014
By Howard Pousner
By Howard Pousner
The musicians of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra were wearing black, which would have been appropriate for Thursday night’s scheduled opening concert of its 70th anniversary season.
But the concert was cancelled earlier this week, another development in a whirlwind three-week lockout of the players by management of the orchestra and its parent nonprofit, the Woodruff Arts Center, that went into effect after the two sides failed to reach an accord on a new collective bargaining agreement.
Instead, the musicians donned their tuxes and gowns for a wordless demonstration that they dubbed “A Deafening Silence” on Callaway Plaza, outside the 15th Street entrance to the Woodruff Arts Center (WAC). Though many carried their instrument cases, there was no music, no speeches, just applause in support of the players.
The nearly half-hour protest was solemn, feeling more like a funeral, where black also is appropriate. When it ended and there were many quiet hugs, they seemed like the reassuring embraces of mourners rather than those of comrades in a cause.
Notable among those in the crowd giving and receiving hugs was ASO music director Robert Spano. As the participants assembled across Peachtree Street beforehand, the casually clad maestro shared welcoming embraces with his musicians, repeatedly telling them, “I’m so proud of you.”
But the concert was cancelled earlier this week, another development in a whirlwind three-week lockout of the players by management of the orchestra and its parent nonprofit, the Woodruff Arts Center, that went into effect after the two sides failed to reach an accord on a new collective bargaining agreement.
Instead, the musicians donned their tuxes and gowns for a wordless demonstration that they dubbed “A Deafening Silence” on Callaway Plaza, outside the 15th Street entrance to the Woodruff Arts Center (WAC). Though many carried their instrument cases, there was no music, no speeches, just applause in support of the players.
The nearly half-hour protest was solemn, feeling more like a funeral, where black also is appropriate. When it ended and there were many quiet hugs, they seemed like the reassuring embraces of mourners rather than those of comrades in a cause.
Notable among those in the crowd giving and receiving hugs was ASO music director Robert Spano. As the participants assembled across Peachtree Street beforehand, the casually clad maestro shared welcoming embraces with his musicians, repeatedly telling them, “I’m so proud of you.”
Atlanta Symphony Lockout Is Enforced Silence | Posted: 09/25/2014 5:45 pm EDT
Alan Fletcher Become a fan Composer, commentator, President and CEO of the Aspen Music Festival and School
Alan Fletcher Become a fan Composer, commentator, President and CEO of the Aspen Music Festival and School
There are two sides to this. To say that the orchestra must have 106 full-time positions at a nationally competitive salary, or 96, or 86, may or may not be right. To say that any compromise along this axis is the end of the orchestra is surely wrong. But it is the essence of the importance of a collective bargaining agreement that it should ensure the voice of the musicians in decisions about the size and scope of the organization.
In Detroit, as in Minneapolis, there were important voices saying that it didn't matter if leading musicians left the orchestra. To say that any loss of musicians decimates the orchestra would also be wrong. Orchestras are constantly renewing themselves, and even the most legendary players leave, and become part of a legendary history. But there is a fulcrum, and when too many are leaving, the seesaw flips with a vengeance. Robert Spano has had a particular genius for finding the best young brass players, and orchestras including the Chicago Symphony and the New York and Los Angeles Philharmonics have consistently recruited from Atlanta. This is a healthy thing for an orchestra in Atlanta's position. If the top young talent cannot be recruited, because they understand that Atlanta might no longer be the perfect place to incubate their skills, then something infinitely precious is being squandered.
It's hard to have faith that the leadership of the Woodruff Center understands any of this.
What is needed, in Atlanta and everywhere, is the recognition that all sides play a part. It's how philanthropy works -- a partnership, an investment, a shared good. It's how artistry works. Dare I say, it's how excellent management works.
A lockout is an enforcement of silence. It doesn't work.
In Detroit, as in Minneapolis, there were important voices saying that it didn't matter if leading musicians left the orchestra. To say that any loss of musicians decimates the orchestra would also be wrong. Orchestras are constantly renewing themselves, and even the most legendary players leave, and become part of a legendary history. But there is a fulcrum, and when too many are leaving, the seesaw flips with a vengeance. Robert Spano has had a particular genius for finding the best young brass players, and orchestras including the Chicago Symphony and the New York and Los Angeles Philharmonics have consistently recruited from Atlanta. This is a healthy thing for an orchestra in Atlanta's position. If the top young talent cannot be recruited, because they understand that Atlanta might no longer be the perfect place to incubate their skills, then something infinitely precious is being squandered.
It's hard to have faith that the leadership of the Woodruff Center understands any of this.
What is needed, in Atlanta and everywhere, is the recognition that all sides play a part. It's how philanthropy works -- a partnership, an investment, a shared good. It's how artistry works. Dare I say, it's how excellent management works.
A lockout is an enforcement of silence. It doesn't work.
The Incredible Shrinking Orchestra | Posted on September 24, 2014 | 24 Comments
And our management – not our artistic management, mind you, but our un-artistic President, wants to have total control in determining whether we replace missing players. No sensible observer has any doubt that he would exert that control to do the “fiscally responsible” thing: shrinking the orchestra. Turning us into a lean, mean, mediocrity machine.
I wonder how it is that by further reducing the complement, the number of career ASO musicians dedicated to this community, the WAC hopes to save money? By avoiding programming the big, bombastic Romantic-era warhorses that sell out concerts, in favor of more modestly orchestrated pre-1820-or-so music? And by sacrificing the brilliant luster and the uncanny ensemble skills of a legendary orchestra in favor of a shrinking, demoralized, propped-up community band?
Why would audiences get excited about that? Why would donors trying to preserve and perpetuate great art be interested in supporting that?
My five-member bass section has a total of ONE HUNDRED SIXTY-SEVEN YEARS of service to the city of Atlanta. And we apply to every performance everything we’ve learned in those years, every nuance, every missing accent, every awkward page turn. That’s what makes the ASO better than good; it puts us on a level with the greatest orchestras in the most cultured cities in the world.
And that’s what’s at stake here. That’s the iceberg that our WAC leadership is steering us into – the wholesale destruction of a legendary institution seven decades in the making. They get the lifeboats, the city of Atlanta gets the frigid sea.
I wonder how it is that by further reducing the complement, the number of career ASO musicians dedicated to this community, the WAC hopes to save money? By avoiding programming the big, bombastic Romantic-era warhorses that sell out concerts, in favor of more modestly orchestrated pre-1820-or-so music? And by sacrificing the brilliant luster and the uncanny ensemble skills of a legendary orchestra in favor of a shrinking, demoralized, propped-up community band?
Why would audiences get excited about that? Why would donors trying to preserve and perpetuate great art be interested in supporting that?
My five-member bass section has a total of ONE HUNDRED SIXTY-SEVEN YEARS of service to the city of Atlanta. And we apply to every performance everything we’ve learned in those years, every nuance, every missing accent, every awkward page turn. That’s what makes the ASO better than good; it puts us on a level with the greatest orchestras in the most cultured cities in the world.
And that’s what’s at stake here. That’s the iceberg that our WAC leadership is steering us into – the wholesale destruction of a legendary institution seven decades in the making. They get the lifeboats, the city of Atlanta gets the frigid sea.
Music Director Laments Lockout Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Music Director Backs Performers | By MICHAEL COOPER SEPT. 23, 2014
When the well-regarded Atlanta Symphony Orchestra locked out its musicians in a labor dispute for the second time in two years and then announced this week that it was canceling the beginning of its 70th-anniversary season, its music director, Robert Spano, found himself worrying about what the silencing of the ensemble would mean for Atlanta.
“This is a dire and critical juncture for the city of Atlanta, which is in danger of losing the flagship of its culture,” Mr. Spano said in his first interview since the orchestra’s musicians, who accepted significant pay cuts two years ago, were locked out this month after balking at a proposal that would further erode their take-home pay. “If the 10th-largest urban economy in America is incapable of sustaining its cultural jewel, what does that signal about our country?”
The labor battle in Atlanta has not been only about pay and benefits, but also about the size of the ensemble itself, as the orchestra’s management and its parent organization try to cut its costs to end a string of persistent budget deficits. Mr. Spano lamented that “our brilliant and creative musicians, who need to be intimately involved in the creation of our path to the future, have been asked to leave the building — and Atlanta is left with a deafening silence.”
“This is a dire and critical juncture for the city of Atlanta, which is in danger of losing the flagship of its culture,” Mr. Spano said in his first interview since the orchestra’s musicians, who accepted significant pay cuts two years ago, were locked out this month after balking at a proposal that would further erode their take-home pay. “If the 10th-largest urban economy in America is incapable of sustaining its cultural jewel, what does that signal about our country?”
The labor battle in Atlanta has not been only about pay and benefits, but also about the size of the ensemble itself, as the orchestra’s management and its parent organization try to cut its costs to end a string of persistent budget deficits. Mr. Spano lamented that “our brilliant and creative musicians, who need to be intimately involved in the creation of our path to the future, have been asked to leave the building — and Atlanta is left with a deafening silence.”
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ASO Concert Cancellations: Conversations with Both Sides | September 22, 2104
On Monday, September 22, 2014, the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra announced it was calling off its season-opening concert, set for September 25, and all other concerts through November 8, 2014. The orchestra and its musicians have been unable to reach a contract agreement, and the musicians have been locked out since the expiration of their previous contract on September 6. After the ASO announced the cancellations, the Players Association announced some of its members will perform a concert double-header at Kennesaw State University on Friday, September 26, 2014--with more community concerts in the works. WABE's Denis O'Hayer spoke with leaders on both sides: Dr. Stanley Romanstein, president and CEO of the ASO, and Joel Dallow, a veteran ASO cellist who is also a member of the Players Association committee. The broadcast and expanded versions of both interviews are below: |
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News: ASO postpones start of the season; board member criticizes lockout, resigns in protest | September 22, 2014 ArtsATL.com By Jenny Jarvie
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Criticism of the Woodruff Arts Center (WAC), the ASO’s parent company, is mounting. On Monday, a former ASO board member, Ron Antinori, told ArtsATL that he stepped down from his position last week, saying he felt powerless and had come to the conclusion he could do more to resolve the current standoff as an adviser for the musicians. “I didn’t feel that my voice and my opinions as a board member had much of an effect on what was happening,” Antinori said, noting that he did not know that management was planning to lock musicians out until just two days before the deadline for contract negotiations. “I am not privy to what WAC’s motivation is. That’s the elephant in the room. All I know is what I’ve heard: ‘We need to balance the budget.’ Am I suspicious? I honestly just don’t know. There does seem to be a mentality of ‘We don’t care if we destroy the orchestra as long as we balance the budget.’” |
The opening of the orchestra’s 70th season is on hold. (Photo by Jeff Roffman)
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"So, what is it about these other cities that give them the resources to support a major symphony orchestra, while Atlanta allegedly cannot? Are they wealthier, more philanthropic? No, according to a 2012 Atlantic Cities Magazine study, Atlanta ranked 10th on their list of the 30 wealthiest U.S. cities. Atlanta ranks sixth in the nation in GDP. According to Charity Navigator, we rank 15th in total contributions to charity. We are the 17th largest economy in the world.
And our leadership claims that this city can’t support a major symphony orchestra?
Or is it that the Woodruff Arts Center doesn’t want to support a major symphony orchestra, an orchestra that has won 27 Grammy Awards, has made some of the most definitive recordings of some of the greatest works of musical art ever composed, an orchestra that brings culture and beauty and solace and exhilaration to thousands each year? Is it that coping sensibly with the ASO’s debt isn’t the best use of the WAC’s $103,000,000 of unrestricted net assets?
Is the WAC really so willing to let our treasured artistic talent migrate to other cities? Are they satisfied with the cultural contributions of Real Housewives and Honey Boo Boo? Those pillars of culture turn a profit, at least.
Is that why the WAC is so hostile to the symphony? Because great art isn’t worth supporting? Because we aspire to mediocrity? Because our city strives to be provincial, rather than “world-class”? After all, to borrow a phrase from WAC CEO Virginia Hepner, it’s up to anyone to decide what’s world-class, and what a great city should be.
Well, without a sea-change in leadership, Atlanta will keep losing its most talented musicians to orchestras with leadership that aspires to greatness. They’ll leave slowly at first, a week here, a week there, while the WAC steers the Titanic straight for the iceberg, because it’s much easier to pilot a lifeboat than an oceanliner. Before long, our musicians will find greener pastures, and the cities that hire them will be richer for it, and my city, my home, will be impoverished by their loss. And the WAC will have gotten their wish: an orchestra they don’t have to raise a dime for, or negotiate against, or ever worry about again."
trudgemusic the view from stage left
And our leadership claims that this city can’t support a major symphony orchestra?
Or is it that the Woodruff Arts Center doesn’t want to support a major symphony orchestra, an orchestra that has won 27 Grammy Awards, has made some of the most definitive recordings of some of the greatest works of musical art ever composed, an orchestra that brings culture and beauty and solace and exhilaration to thousands each year? Is it that coping sensibly with the ASO’s debt isn’t the best use of the WAC’s $103,000,000 of unrestricted net assets?
Is the WAC really so willing to let our treasured artistic talent migrate to other cities? Are they satisfied with the cultural contributions of Real Housewives and Honey Boo Boo? Those pillars of culture turn a profit, at least.
Is that why the WAC is so hostile to the symphony? Because great art isn’t worth supporting? Because we aspire to mediocrity? Because our city strives to be provincial, rather than “world-class”? After all, to borrow a phrase from WAC CEO Virginia Hepner, it’s up to anyone to decide what’s world-class, and what a great city should be.
Well, without a sea-change in leadership, Atlanta will keep losing its most talented musicians to orchestras with leadership that aspires to greatness. They’ll leave slowly at first, a week here, a week there, while the WAC steers the Titanic straight for the iceberg, because it’s much easier to pilot a lifeboat than an oceanliner. Before long, our musicians will find greener pastures, and the cities that hire them will be richer for it, and my city, my home, will be impoverished by their loss. And the WAC will have gotten their wish: an orchestra they don’t have to raise a dime for, or negotiate against, or ever worry about again."
trudgemusic the view from stage left
Press Statement 9-18-14
Atlanta, GA September 18, 2014
On September 15th 2014, Woodruff Arts Center spokesman Randy Donaldson said that it was “totally laughable” to imagine that the WAC manipulated earned and contributed revenues in an attempt to engineer posted deficits. (http://www.artsatl.com/2014/09/news-aso-lockout-enters-second-week/) Yet in each of the fiscal years that preceded a lockout -- 2012 and the current lockout of 2014 -- significant funds were received by the Woodruff Arts Center that could have mitigated, or eliminated completely, the posted deficit for each operating year.
In November 2011, the Woodruff Arts Center received a $15 million gift from the Woodruff Foundation. While $5 million was allocated to retire debt held by the Alliance Theatre and the High Museum, no part of this gift was allocated to the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. Contract negotiations with the Musicians were scheduled to begin only four months later.
During FY14 (June 1, 2013 – May 31, 2014), the Woodruff Arts Center sold the 14th Street Playhouse to Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) for $1.9 million, and then donated all funds acquired from the sale. WAC President and CEO Virginia Hepner admitted that, as “tempting” as it was to use the nearly $2 million to address the myriad needs of the WAC, donating the proceeds just felt like “it was the right thing to do.”
The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra sold the14th Street land originally intended to house the new Symphony Center in April 2014. With the proceeds received from this sale, $15.42 million was used to pay off debt associated with the bonds on that land; approximately $6 million was left in available funds to the ASO. The WAC decided to use $4.5 million of the remaining funds to pre-pay loan payments – payments that had originally been scheduled to take place over four years – associated with the Verizon Wireless Amphitheater. The ASO was still left with almost $1.5 million in proceeds from the land sale.
The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra also received additional anonymous gifts totaling $3.121 million during the last fiscal year.
With the enormous influx of funds due to the sale of two properties and the gifts received last year alone, the Musicians question how such a significant deficit was still posted by the ASO; a mere fraction of those earnings allocated to operating expenses would have eliminated the FY14 deficit. It would make all the difference if the WAC would reconsider its decisions that prohibited financial balance to occur. It is not that the Musicians are opposed to a wise debt retirement plan, but the Musicians are opposed to one that needlessly undermines the organization’s work by not allocating any earnings like these to it directly – in essence, starving the family to pay the bank. The WAC has repeatedly told the Musicians that the ASO producing a balanced budget is the key to greater support from foundations and donors – including the WAC itself. Yet, the WAC seems determined that the ASO continue to post operating deficits, particularly during negotiation years with the Musicians. The Musicians would like nothing better than to work with a vigorous, unrestricted ASO fundraising initiative to produce not only a balanced budget, but a restored luster that will attract new audiences and new fiscal support.
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Twitter @ATLSymMusicians
www.atlsymphonymusicians.com
Atlanta, GA September 18, 2014
On September 15th 2014, Woodruff Arts Center spokesman Randy Donaldson said that it was “totally laughable” to imagine that the WAC manipulated earned and contributed revenues in an attempt to engineer posted deficits. (http://www.artsatl.com/2014/09/news-aso-lockout-enters-second-week/) Yet in each of the fiscal years that preceded a lockout -- 2012 and the current lockout of 2014 -- significant funds were received by the Woodruff Arts Center that could have mitigated, or eliminated completely, the posted deficit for each operating year.
In November 2011, the Woodruff Arts Center received a $15 million gift from the Woodruff Foundation. While $5 million was allocated to retire debt held by the Alliance Theatre and the High Museum, no part of this gift was allocated to the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. Contract negotiations with the Musicians were scheduled to begin only four months later.
During FY14 (June 1, 2013 – May 31, 2014), the Woodruff Arts Center sold the 14th Street Playhouse to Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) for $1.9 million, and then donated all funds acquired from the sale. WAC President and CEO Virginia Hepner admitted that, as “tempting” as it was to use the nearly $2 million to address the myriad needs of the WAC, donating the proceeds just felt like “it was the right thing to do.”
The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra sold the14th Street land originally intended to house the new Symphony Center in April 2014. With the proceeds received from this sale, $15.42 million was used to pay off debt associated with the bonds on that land; approximately $6 million was left in available funds to the ASO. The WAC decided to use $4.5 million of the remaining funds to pre-pay loan payments – payments that had originally been scheduled to take place over four years – associated with the Verizon Wireless Amphitheater. The ASO was still left with almost $1.5 million in proceeds from the land sale.
The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra also received additional anonymous gifts totaling $3.121 million during the last fiscal year.
With the enormous influx of funds due to the sale of two properties and the gifts received last year alone, the Musicians question how such a significant deficit was still posted by the ASO; a mere fraction of those earnings allocated to operating expenses would have eliminated the FY14 deficit. It would make all the difference if the WAC would reconsider its decisions that prohibited financial balance to occur. It is not that the Musicians are opposed to a wise debt retirement plan, but the Musicians are opposed to one that needlessly undermines the organization’s work by not allocating any earnings like these to it directly – in essence, starving the family to pay the bank. The WAC has repeatedly told the Musicians that the ASO producing a balanced budget is the key to greater support from foundations and donors – including the WAC itself. Yet, the WAC seems determined that the ASO continue to post operating deficits, particularly during negotiation years with the Musicians. The Musicians would like nothing better than to work with a vigorous, unrestricted ASO fundraising initiative to produce not only a balanced budget, but a restored luster that will attract new audiences and new fiscal support.
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Twitter @ATLSymMusicians
www.atlsymphonymusicians.com
ASO PLAYERS SPEAK OUT | Published on Sep 17, 2014
Fulton County Commission
Fulton County Commission
September 17, 2014
GEORGIA
Robert W. Woodruff Arts Center
Placed at the request of Local 148-462, Atlanta, GA
Atlanta Symphony Orchestra dba ASO Presents
Placed at the request of Local 148-462, Atlanta, GA
Atlanta Symphony Orchestra
Placed at the request of Local 148-462, Atlanta, GA
GEORGIA
Robert W. Woodruff Arts Center
Placed at the request of Local 148-462, Atlanta, GA
Atlanta Symphony Orchestra dba ASO Presents
Placed at the request of Local 148-462, Atlanta, GA
Atlanta Symphony Orchestra
Placed at the request of Local 148-462, Atlanta, GA
PRESS RELEASE: Atlanta, GA September 11, 2014
The Woodruff Arts Center (WAC) is the non-profit umbrella organization of its four divisions: The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, The High Museum of Art, The Alliance Theatre, and Arts for Learning.
Although the ASO has a fully functioning Board of Directors and its own administrative staff, the WAC has been exercising increasingly greater control over every facet of the ASO. The Symphony has been placed in the position of running deficits that have been engineered by the WAC with the intention and for the purpose of extracting more concessions from the Orchestra’s musicians.
Two years ago, when the Musicians’ contract expired on August 25, 2012, the ASO management and the ASO Executive Board reached an agreement in the contract’s final hours that would have averted a lockout. However, the WAC rejected the deal out of hand, and promptly locked out the musicians for four weeks in an effort to exact further concessions.
Since the lockout of 2012, funds earned by and donated to the ASO have been manipulated in such a way as to force the ASO to continue to post deficits. This is a blatant attempt by the WAC to complete the permanent diminution and destruction of the ASO that it set out to do two years ago.
While the WAC bemoans the accumulation of deficits, it manages to secure funding to usher out veteran members of the ASO with a retirement incentive that would cost the ASO up to $3.75 million. This is almost double the amount needed to fund the Musicians’ proposal over the course of four years. The WAC is capable of raising money - and ignoring deficit accumulation - when the purpose is to diminish the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. The WAC is also able to approve deficits in non-negotiation years (as they did at the end of FY 13), yet suddenly mandates that the budget be balanced – and only on the backs of the Musicians -- during a negotiation year. Practices such as these exemplify how the Woodruff Arts Center fails to live up to its charter to be stewards of the Arts for the city of Atlanta.
ATL Symphony Musicians
The Woodruff Arts Center (WAC) is the non-profit umbrella organization of its four divisions: The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, The High Museum of Art, The Alliance Theatre, and Arts for Learning.
Although the ASO has a fully functioning Board of Directors and its own administrative staff, the WAC has been exercising increasingly greater control over every facet of the ASO. The Symphony has been placed in the position of running deficits that have been engineered by the WAC with the intention and for the purpose of extracting more concessions from the Orchestra’s musicians.
Two years ago, when the Musicians’ contract expired on August 25, 2012, the ASO management and the ASO Executive Board reached an agreement in the contract’s final hours that would have averted a lockout. However, the WAC rejected the deal out of hand, and promptly locked out the musicians for four weeks in an effort to exact further concessions.
Since the lockout of 2012, funds earned by and donated to the ASO have been manipulated in such a way as to force the ASO to continue to post deficits. This is a blatant attempt by the WAC to complete the permanent diminution and destruction of the ASO that it set out to do two years ago.
While the WAC bemoans the accumulation of deficits, it manages to secure funding to usher out veteran members of the ASO with a retirement incentive that would cost the ASO up to $3.75 million. This is almost double the amount needed to fund the Musicians’ proposal over the course of four years. The WAC is capable of raising money - and ignoring deficit accumulation - when the purpose is to diminish the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. The WAC is also able to approve deficits in non-negotiation years (as they did at the end of FY 13), yet suddenly mandates that the budget be balanced – and only on the backs of the Musicians -- during a negotiation year. Practices such as these exemplify how the Woodruff Arts Center fails to live up to its charter to be stewards of the Arts for the city of Atlanta.
ATL Symphony Musicians
As of midnight September 7th, 2014, ASO President and CEO Stanley Romanstein had refused all requests to meet with the Musicians during the final hours before the 2012-2014 CBA expired, forcing them to submit their most recent proposal electronically. The musicians emphasized in their proposal that they wish to avoid a labor dispute and propose to continue negotiating while working under the concessionary 2012-14 contract. The musicians have received no response; it appears that the Woodruff Arts Center has locked out the Musicians of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra for the second time in as many years.
In over eight months of negotiations, the Woodruff Arts Center and ASO Managements have displayed no willingness to find a workable agreement. They have refused to meet in person during the final days before our existing contract expired, and obstinately cling to the concessionary terms of their “last, best, and final offer,” under which the musicians would continue to hemorrhage income and lose orchestra positions.
Stanley Romanstein publicly accused the Musicians of not being willing to explore alternative health care solutions. Not only is that claim false – but the Musicians have offered the WAC healthcare solutions that would yield a greater savings without cutting into musician compensation any further.
According to the last, best, and final offer presented by the Woodruff Arts Center, the WAC has $3.75 million dollars available to further reduce the size of the orchestra by one third through a voluntary retirement incentive, and yet they will not apply such funding towards an agreement that we can sign. $3.75 million dollars exceeds the amount necessary to fund the musicians proposed increases. This is a WAC attempt to forever deprive the orchestra of its ability to function in the first league of orchestras.
The WAC has not demonstrated through their actions an understanding in the last two years of what is required to sustain a great American Orchestra – either artistically or financially. Because of this, the musicians can not afford to give up control to the WAC in determining the size of the orchestra.
The cost of the compensation package of Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Musicians was $12.2 million dollars in 2012. The cost of the compensation package as outlined in the Musicians’ proposal of September 6th will be $11.68 million dollars in 2018, the fourth year of the proposed agreement. Under the Musicians’ proposal, the orchestra’s costs will be less in 2018 than they were six years prior in 2012.
Paul Murphy, President ASOPA
In over eight months of negotiations, the Woodruff Arts Center and ASO Managements have displayed no willingness to find a workable agreement. They have refused to meet in person during the final days before our existing contract expired, and obstinately cling to the concessionary terms of their “last, best, and final offer,” under which the musicians would continue to hemorrhage income and lose orchestra positions.
Stanley Romanstein publicly accused the Musicians of not being willing to explore alternative health care solutions. Not only is that claim false – but the Musicians have offered the WAC healthcare solutions that would yield a greater savings without cutting into musician compensation any further.
According to the last, best, and final offer presented by the Woodruff Arts Center, the WAC has $3.75 million dollars available to further reduce the size of the orchestra by one third through a voluntary retirement incentive, and yet they will not apply such funding towards an agreement that we can sign. $3.75 million dollars exceeds the amount necessary to fund the musicians proposed increases. This is a WAC attempt to forever deprive the orchestra of its ability to function in the first league of orchestras.
The WAC has not demonstrated through their actions an understanding in the last two years of what is required to sustain a great American Orchestra – either artistically or financially. Because of this, the musicians can not afford to give up control to the WAC in determining the size of the orchestra.
The cost of the compensation package of Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Musicians was $12.2 million dollars in 2012. The cost of the compensation package as outlined in the Musicians’ proposal of September 6th will be $11.68 million dollars in 2018, the fourth year of the proposed agreement. Under the Musicians’ proposal, the orchestra’s costs will be less in 2018 than they were six years prior in 2012.
Paul Murphy, President ASOPA
From Stanley E. Romanstein, Ph.D.
President & CEO
Atlanta Symphony Orchestra
September 23, 2014
To our valued patrons --
Today we regretfully announced the cancellation of all orchestral concerts through November 8, 2014, including the opening performance of the 2014-15 season on September 25, due to negotiations between ASO management and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Players’ Association (ASOPA) over a new collective bargaining agreement.
If an agreement is reached between ASO management and ASOPA before November 8, the classical season will be re-launched as soon as possible.
We are encouraging all of our patrons to keep their tickets until a new agreement can be reached. In the interim, there are a few options for you to consider.
Season ticket holders are encouraged to contact the ASO Season Tickets office at (404) 733-4800 with any questions.
We deeply appreciate your patronage and look forward to continuing to make music in Symphony Hall.
Best regards,
Stanley E. Romanstein, Ph.D.
President & CEO
Atlanta Symphony Orchestra
Today we regretfully announced the cancellation of all orchestral concerts through November 8, 2014, including the opening performance of the 2014-15 season on September 25, due to negotiations between ASO management and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Players’ Association (ASOPA) over a new collective bargaining agreement.
If an agreement is reached between ASO management and ASOPA before November 8, the classical season will be re-launched as soon as possible.
We are encouraging all of our patrons to keep their tickets until a new agreement can be reached. In the interim, there are a few options for you to consider.
- You may exchange your tickets to a future Atlanta Symphony Orchestra concert. A list of future concerts with good seating availability will be mailed out when the work stoppage is over in order to help you make a choice of concerts.
- You may consider the full face value of your unused tickets as a contribution to the ASO.
- You can request a full cash refund for any concerts that are cancelled. You will be reimbursed for any service fees.
Season ticket holders are encouraged to contact the ASO Season Tickets office at (404) 733-4800 with any questions.
We deeply appreciate your patronage and look forward to continuing to make music in Symphony Hall.
Best regards,
Stanley E. Romanstein, Ph.D.
President & CEO
Atlanta Symphony Orchestra
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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
