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mrissaDear Minnesota Orchestra Management:
Please stop sending me letters badmouthing your musicians. Stop sending them to my e-mail. Stop sending them (in duplicate copy, no less!) to my postal address. Stop calling me to ask for money while you are making this mess with your musicians, but particularly stop badmouthing your musicians. I have asked you this in private several times, and now I will ask you in public.
Do you know what you sell me, Minnesota Orchestra Management? You sell me tickets to concerts played by your musicians. If you succeed in making me think poorly of your musicians, I will not say, "You're right, darn those musicians! I should go to concerts with those crappy horrible musicians, but at whatever pay scale and benefits management wants to give them!" I will instead say, "I live in the Twin Cities area. Why would I go listen to crappy musicians? There are opportunities to hear good ones instead." But in fact I don't believe your propaganda. I've been to Minnesota Orchestra concerts. One of the musicians who is acting as a union spokesman is Doug Wright. Guess who has moved my stoic Nordic self to leap to her feet in spontaneous applause? Doug Wright. Guess what you've done in that direction? NOTHING. I don't even particularly like the trombone. It's not in my top five favorite instruments. And that man can play the trombone to make me jump up and shout, "Bravo!" I am not a shouter of "Bravo." But I shouted it anyway. Do you understand that at all? Have you had that experience of the orchestra you run? Do you remember that that's what you're supposed to be facilitating, at all? What do you think your letters are going to do to override that?
Orchestra patrons are not stupid. We know that an independent financial valuation is a reasonable thing for musicians to ask, and is the road to them knowing what kind of specific counterproposal they can make. Without one, you can just keep repeating, "That's impossible, do it our way," no matter what they say, no matter the facts. We also know that you are a great deal more replaceable than the musicians. So hop to it with the independent assessments. And stop harassing me about how it's all the musicians' fault. It's not true, and it would be counterproductive even if it worked.
In frustration,
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mrissa
Please stop sending me letters badmouthing your musicians. Stop sending them to my e-mail. Stop sending them (in duplicate copy, no less!) to my postal address. Stop calling me to ask for money while you are making this mess with your musicians, but particularly stop badmouthing your musicians. I have asked you this in private several times, and now I will ask you in public.
Do you know what you sell me, Minnesota Orchestra Management? You sell me tickets to concerts played by your musicians. If you succeed in making me think poorly of your musicians, I will not say, "You're right, darn those musicians! I should go to concerts with those crappy horrible musicians, but at whatever pay scale and benefits management wants to give them!" I will instead say, "I live in the Twin Cities area. Why would I go listen to crappy musicians? There are opportunities to hear good ones instead." But in fact I don't believe your propaganda. I've been to Minnesota Orchestra concerts. One of the musicians who is acting as a union spokesman is Doug Wright. Guess who has moved my stoic Nordic self to leap to her feet in spontaneous applause? Doug Wright. Guess what you've done in that direction? NOTHING. I don't even particularly like the trombone. It's not in my top five favorite instruments. And that man can play the trombone to make me jump up and shout, "Bravo!" I am not a shouter of "Bravo." But I shouted it anyway. Do you understand that at all? Have you had that experience of the orchestra you run? Do you remember that that's what you're supposed to be facilitating, at all? What do you think your letters are going to do to override that?
Orchestra patrons are not stupid. We know that an independent financial valuation is a reasonable thing for musicians to ask, and is the road to them knowing what kind of specific counterproposal they can make. Without one, you can just keep repeating, "That's impossible, do it our way," no matter what they say, no matter the facts. We also know that you are a great deal more replaceable than the musicians. So hop to it with the independent assessments. And stop harassing me about how it's all the musicians' fault. It's not true, and it would be counterproductive even if it worked.
In frustration,
mrissa
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no subject
Date: 2012-11-17 11:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-11-17 11:18 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-11-18 12:19 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-11-18 05:34 am (UTC)P.
no subject
Date: 2012-11-18 05:54 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-11-18 06:13 am (UTC)Given the amount of training needed, the risks of physical injury, and the skill and practice needed, I think almost any symphony musician is underpaid. (And ditto jazz musicians.)
no subject
Date: 2012-11-18 06:56 am (UTC)I can tell you haven't been to the clap clap clap clap clap clap
orchestra recently.
no subject
Date: 2012-11-18 10:40 am (UTC)Brava!
no subject
Date: 2012-11-18 12:23 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-11-18 05:29 pm (UTC)May I post a link, please?
Date: 2012-11-18 08:43 pm (UTC)Patty from oboeinsight.com
Re: May I post a link, please?
Date: 2012-11-18 09:04 pm (UTC)Re: May I post a link, please?
Date: 2012-11-18 09:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-11-19 12:37 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-11-19 04:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-11-19 04:48 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-11-22 07:06 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-12-03 08:23 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-12-04 05:40 pm (UTC)They are the kind of people who think nothing of writing to the paper to say, "Look at me! I am a bold leader!" They are the kind of people who would do that within the culture of Minnesota, for the love of Pete. That's who we're dealing with here.
I think it's a very indicative letter--he goes into all sorts of buzzwords about strong leadership making difficult decisions and not winning popularity contests. What it boils down to is that the people in the MN Orchestra's leadership think that "the Orchestra" is a thing in itself, not made up of Doug and Burt and Wendy and Cathy and all the other actual musicians--and that they are better leaders of that entity than the people who actually comprise it could ever be. It looks fairly clear to me that they made decisions about fundraising direction and how to handle financials and are now so locked into those decisions that they cannot see them as malleable. Their proposed contracts have become what they have to do--not just one option that they have selected among many. And even when you think that you've picked the best option, I think it's crucial to remember that it was a choice. Your opinion of the best option may have to shift when you take other people's thoughts and behaviors into account, or when other factors in the world change.
I think the management of the Orchestra has gotten itself into a mindset wherein their opinions and decisions are Cold Hard Reality. We in science fiction can watch people shrieking about "The Cold Equations" and know how badly that can go wrong. But if I'm reading them right about the Cold Hard Reality, it certainly explains why they are treating musicians and the listening public like children, why they feel they don't have to explain themselves, etc.
I think that actual artists--visual artists, writers, musicians--are intimately familiar with doing things one way and then another. It's part of selection, revision, interpretation and reinterpretation. It's not exclusive to the arts, but it's essential to the arts. And it looks like a major worldview clash to me from here.
I could, of course, be wrong about all of this. That's another option.