Posted on February 23, 2012 at 1:47 am by Robert Levine
in General |

The most recent attempt by the board and management of the Louisville Orchestra to appear to be trying to settle what has turned into the orchestral equivalent of WW3 was to propose an interesting form of arbitration; one that would have required the Louisville Orchestra musicians to agree in advance to several provisions that they had already demonstrated clearly were bright-line issues to them; as Drew McManus described the rejection of the offer by the musicians:

…This comes as no real surprise in that the offer had a number of provisos tailored to ensure that any decision would conform to financial and operational parameters contained in their previous proposals, all of which have been previously rejected by LO musicians.

Moreover, the lack of any input on selecting the pool of arbitrator candidates made the offer more of an empty gesture than a shared risk effort to end the work stoppage.

One possible option for the musicians, in the face of what was intended by management t0 be seen as a reasonable offer, would have been to make a reasonable counter-offer, which could have led to them, as political spinmeisters would say, “winning the news cycle” if not actually getting any closer to any kind of settlement, given management’s intransigence on the core issues. They chose a different path; choosing to reject the offer and calling the Mayor to convene a panel:

Louisville Orchestra musicians rejected the board’s offer Thursday to settle a nearly yearlong contract dispute through binding arbitration, calling the details of the proposal “draconian.”

Kim Tichenor, a violinist with the orchestra and the players’ negotiating committee chair, declined to elaborate on the musicians’ decision or on the next action they are considering.

A letter from the musicians to the orchestra board’s attorney stated that the musicians rejected the proposal in part because the board chose the initial list of arbitrators, set parameters that would limit the arbitrator’s authority and refused to entertain counterproposals.

…Tichenor stressed that the musicians hope the Fund for the Arts and Mayor Greg Fischer will convene a special panel to resolve the dispute, as suggested in a report by orchestra industry consultant Henry Fogel, who visited Louisville in January at the musicians’ request.

“That would get things back on track,” she said.

But Fischer, in a statement Thursday night, said: “Until both sides can agree to a course of action that is binding on both of them, any attempt to further study the issue seems futile. I am happy to offer any assistance from my office once the parties come to a binding agreement on a process … for moving to resolution. I urge both parties to take a fresh look at the impasse and resolve it for the good of our community.”

Drew McManus wrote, in the same post,  that the musicians:

missed an influential opportunity to push the ordeal toward a better direction vis-a-vis their latest PR and public demonstration efforts and instead decided to endorse a course of action that has already failed to resolve the conflict.

I wondered about that too. But I think what the musicians’ rejection really means is not that they missed a PR opportunity but rather that they’ve decided to fight a different battle. It’s not about pressuring management, through PR, to come back to the table in any form, I suspect, but rather about bringing to bear external pressure to get new leadership for the orchestra.

There’s not much point, after all, in getting a leadership as malign and inept as their board and management, as perceived to be by the musicians, to agree to anything; it’s rather like a battered spouse returning to the family home after the 10th call to police over a few months. At some point the promises to do better have no credibility, especially when made under external duress.

I suspect that’s the real goal behind this:

Louisville Orchestra musicians are determined to not stay quiet. Monday their chorus of protest grew as dozen of union members from the Jefferson County Teachers Association, AFL-CIO, firefighters’ union, and the UAW threw their support behind the musicians. “We want the Louisville Orchestra to remain alive and well here in Louisville,” says James Carrico with CWA Local 3310.

…Musicians seem ready to balk the latest arbitration deal while other union members launched attacks at Fund for the Arts with many promising not to donate to the fundraising campaign that kicked off 2 weeks ago. “I will go to our members and advocate that they do not donate any money to the Fund for the Arts for these sinister acts upon the Louisville Orchestra,” says Craig Willam with Louisville Firefighters Local 345.

This is hardball with a vengeance, and, to the best of my knowledge, has never been tried before in an orchestral labor dispute. Obviously there are risks, one being that a power play of that rawness is going to be viewed by some as unseemly. But it’s hard to imagine anything else that could bring the major player in Louisville, the Fund for the Arts, into the equation as effectively. Stepping on someone’s oxygen line is seldom met with gratitude – but it can cause the oxygenee to want to fix the problem.

One other point should be made, though. There is a temptation amongst analysts of this (and many other disputes) to try to balance coverage and commentary by distributing blame more or less evenly; a problem that James Fallows at The Atlantic calls “false equivalence.” An excellent example was provided by Louisville Orchestra CEO Rob Birman when he said of the proposal to involve the Mayor:

Orchestra CEO Robert Birman said Monday that he has no comment on the unions’ request, except to say that Fischer’s office participated in the negotiation process last fall, when it brokered the hiring of labor relations expert Ralph Craviso with money from an anonymous donor. Those negotiations failed.

Come to think of it, that’s actually a better example of chutzpah, defined unforgettably by the late Leo Rosten as someone who murdered his parents pleading for mercy on the grounds that he’s an orphan.

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Posted on February 16, 2012 at 3:54 pm by Ramon Ricker
in Being a Successful Entrepreneur, gigs |

When I was a doctoral student, I was in a class that had an assignment that asked us to think into the future twenty years and forecast what the music profession would look like.  I wish I still had that paper.  It would be fun to see how far off I was.  Anyway, one student was very frustrated with the assignment.  She just couldn’t get into it.  I remember one of her comments.   “What should we do?  Take LSD to help stimulate our imaginations?”  OK, it was the 60s.  But talk about inside-the-box thinking!   She was all about what was going on in the present and pretty short on imagination! That student not withstanding, it’s kind of fun to think about future trends.  Here is a thought I had just today.  I have a student who is finishing his doctorate in jazz studies, and he is writing a dissertation.  I’m not his primary advisor, but I’m on his committee and so I have to read this document, make comments and edits and when it is in good shape I’ll sign off on it.  There are three of us on his committee.  As I read his dissertation today I thought,  “The content is great, but the delivery system is very antiquated.  It has a footnote about every other sentence, and because it is about music it has tons of musical examples.”  I’m thinking that this is the same format as forty years ago when I went through the identical process with my dissertation.  Why can’t this be done in an electronic format with links to the footnotes and embedded musical examples?  It would be so much more user-friendly.  The reader could hear the examples while looking at the music.  I know that the technology is there.  In our website, polyphonic.org, we embedded sound files in one of our articles two years ago.[i]  Maybe there is no need to do this for a dissertation (if you assume that it will never be read again except by a handful of scholars), but I will wager that ten years from now more books will be published in electronic format than hard copy, and that they will have all sorts of interactive add-ons available.  The publishing industry is already firmly headed in this direction. In envisioning the future, I am reminded of this quote that is attributed to hockey legend Wayne Gretzky.  It’s a good one.  When asked how he always seemed to be in the right place at the right time, and consequently scored more goals than others, he replied, “I don’t go where the puck is.  I go to where the puck will be.”  Try to be like Gretzky. http://www.polyphonic.org/article.php?id=97&show=all No comments

Posted on February 16, 2012 at 2:40 pm by Tony Woodcock
in Uncategorized |

George

Just about one year ago, I wrote an entry to this blog in which I praised the continuing acuteness, love of life, intellectual curiosity, and wonderful humor of my friend George—aged 99. To me, he was a real-life hero. My wife and I had visited him at his home in Florida and enjoyed ourselves hugely. Sadly, I recently received word that he had died—not having reached his 100th birthday. You can read his obituary here to get some background on his genuinely swash-buckling life.  And, in appreciation for his example on how to live one’s life, I’m re-running the blog post. (more...) No comments

Posted on February 13, 2012 at 6:06 pm by Robert Levine
in General |

The situation in Louisville continues to make for colorful reporting. Today’s development was that the Music Director of the Kentucky Opera, Joe Mechavich, is bowing out of this week’s production of Merry Widow because the company hired replacement musicians instead of the musicians of the Louisville Orchestra:

…“Given these circumstances, I am unable to continue my role as conductor for this production,” wrote Mechavich in an email to the Kentucky Opera board and opera patrons.

Contract negotiations between the Louisville Orchestra and musicians have stalled since last year and performances have ceased. Last week the Louisville Orchestra extended a final offer to musicians, saying it would enter into binding arbitration with musicians or replace the orchestra with non-union members. The musicians have not yet announced whether they would take the deal.

Mechavich is the latest to feel pressure from the union and to fear losing credibility in the industry. According to a Kentucky Opera email Mechavich was told by other companies he could not conduct their performances if he continued with the Louisville Orchestra.

In his letter, Mechavich writes:

“The patrons, board members, musicians and staff of the Kentucky Opera remain dear to my heart. The strength and character of this great city has had a profound effect on my life; I will always be a part of this community.

It is my fervent hope to return soon to The Brown Theatre and the wonderful people of the Kentucky Opera –- as your conductor and as your friend.”

I have long thought that a major obstacle to replacing an orchestra with non-union musicians would be the refusal of industry professionals to have anything to do with the replacement orchestra. This would suggest that the Louisville Orchestra will have the same problem, assuming of course that they could even put a replacement orchestra together – something that the latest offer of binding arbitration, as bogus as it is, would indicate is proving problematic.

But the kicker is in the last line of the article, which assures the public as to the competency of the replacement conductor, whoever he or she may be:

Opera officials say Mechvich will be replaced by an individual not being named at this time. That individual holds a degree in conducting according to officials.

And I hold a certificate in piloting an aircraft, according to the FAA. I’m looking forward to the many job offers to fly A380s to exotic destinations I’m sure will now flood my inbox.

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Posted on February 13, 2012 at 6:00 am by David Cutler
in Anderson & Roe, Billie Jean, Erlkonig, Michael Jackson, Vivaldi |

Anderson & Roe is not your typical virtuoso piano duo. In addition to breathtaking arrangements, they’ve built their career by making spectacular videos.  Though they’ve been featured on The Savvy Musician Blog before, their latest video productions have won another feature spot. (And on a personal note, I’m excited to be currently working on a commission for this duo inspired [...] No comments

Posted on February 6, 2012 at 12:40 pm by Robert Levine
in General |

The major function of Twitter appears to be enabling people to write things that, after 24 hours or so of reflection, they probably would rather not have written. Case in point is an outpouring of frustration on the part of the violist Jennifer Stumm, who wrote on her Twitter feed last week:

Bigwig last night: “why do we need viola soloists when there are violists in orchestras?” Why do we need pitchers when there’re 1st basemen?

and

Principal violists have come to expect all concerti as well. There is no way for a viola soloist choice not to be a hotbutton

As a principal violist myself, I found this of considerable interest. I can certainly understand her frustration at finding obstacles to building a solo viola career. She is a wonderful player who is definitely worth hearing. And, as unpolitic as it was for her to express herself so publicly, she is basically correct – as is the Bigwhig she quoted. But it’s worth exploring why.

There are several issues at play here. The first is that solo guest artists are, first and foremost, marketing tools to help sell tickets. That’s not only why their fees vary so much but why those fees aren’t always related to how well they play. The fees are far more closely correlated with how famous they are and consequently how many tickets they can enable the orchestra to sell.

Aspiring viola soloists face a tough problem here; how do you become famous if you’re not already famous? That problem is largely a function of the quantity of great music for solo viola and orchestra. To put it bluntly, there isn’t any.

There’s Harold in Italy, of course, but even its commissioner, Niccoló Paganini, infamously complained about Berlioz’s thoughtlessness in not providing anything spectacular for the violist to do. The Bartok concerto is basically a fragmentary remnant of a time when Bartok desperately needed to earn some cash; minor Bartok at best. The Walton concerto is inter-war romantic-tinged mournful English modernism; hardly a crowd-pleaser. And the Mozart, of course, is not a work for solo viola and orchestra.

So the lack of a suitable solo repertoire makes it impossible for a solo violist to build a career by playing warhouses more thrillingly than anyone ever has before, which is how most solo pianists and violinists get noticed. But it has another pernicious effect on the career prospects of solo violists; it means that people like me, who would like to play the odd concerto now and then with their orchestra, get precious few opportunities to do so either. It’s hardly surprising that those people mind when outsiders get those opportunities.

I am a very respectable principal violist (you’ll have to take my word for that unless you want to listen to this, which is me about 20 years ago playing a version for viola and tape of a concerto I helped commission). Since I came to Milwaukee in 1987, I’ve played Harold in Italy twice, Don Quixote (which is hardly a solo viola vehicle anyway) three times, and Mozart once. The only other solo viola appearances were made by Pinchas Zukerman, who played Bartok (on a concert he also conducted) and Mozart. From anecdotal data, this appears to be a pretty typical record for an American princpal violist.

Contrast this with the experience of the average concertmaster, who gets not only to play better pieces more often, but doesn’t corner the local market on violin soloists when he/she does play. Our concertmaster in Milwaukee, Frank Almond, plays a concerto or so every season. But we have lots of other violin soloists as well, because there are lots of marketable violin soloists and lots of great pieces for them to all share.

For all other orchestral instruments (with the possible exception of the cello), the aspiring solo violist or clarinetist or oboist is in direct competition both with the desire of the local principal to play the occasional solo work and the need of the orchestra to accommodate them for multiple reasons. Absent any compelling reason to hire someone like Jennifer Stumm other than the fact that they play really, really well, most orchestras will take the cheaper and safer route of using their own people for oddball instrument concerti.

Besides, if she really wants to have fun playing the viola, she ought to be playing in a quartet. Would any sane person prefer trying to make a silk purse out of the Bartok concerto (in any of its “completed by someone other than Barkok” versions) to playing the viola part to Op. 132 with a quartet that’s really clicking? Pick the right quartet and the pay is better too.

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Posted on February 2, 2012 at 9:48 am by Ramon Ricker
in Being a Successful Entrepreneur, gigs |

If you have read my book, Lessons From a Street-Wise Professor, think back to Chapter 9: “Five Non-Linear Career Journeys.”  These are stories of very successful entrepreneurial musicians.  I chose to include them because they represent five different areas of the music business, but I had a secondary reason as well.  They all have reached their goals in different ways.  There really is no one single road to success in music.  If you gain experience, be observant, have good role models and develop an entrepreneurial mindset, your time will come. Once a friend of a friend asked me what her daughter could do to prepare for a career in music.  Her daughter was then a high school student and was considering a college major in music.  Half-jokingly I gave her a flip answer. I said, “Tell her she should 1) get a paper route, because then she will know how many papers she has to deliver just to purchase one CD; and 2) get a ukulele, because she will learn how to harmonize tunes with just three chords.”  In other words, know the value of a dollar and work on your ears.  But, something was lost in my profundity: I forgot that kids haven’t had paper routes in 30 years.  Got to change that one. No comments