RSO Musicians

Here are the names of the nine Music Director candidates selected by the RSO:

• Mikhail Agrest
• Daniel Meyer
• Steven Smith
• Marc Taddei
• Arthur Post
• Dorian Wilson
• Alastair Willis
• Christian Knapp
• Arthur Fagen

Read on for the full press release from the RSO.

(Richmond, Va.) The Richmond Symphony is inviting nine conductors, out of a field consisting of almost 250 applications, to compete for the opportunity to become the organization’s next music director. Beginning in Fall 2008 and lasting through Fall 2009, the nine candidates (bios below) will visit Richmond and work with the orchestra in many settings including public performances across all of its four concert series. In addition to seeing the candidates lead the orchestra in concert, the public will have the opportunity to meet the conductors at special events, pre-concert talks and weigh-in online and through surveys when the 2008-09 Season begins in September of this year.
A search committee representing key stakeholders from the RSO Board of Directors, musicians of the orchestra, and staff are guiding the process “The next 18 months provide us a great opportunity to include the community-at-large in the process as we select a new artistic leader,” said RSO Search Committee Chair Tracy Schwarzschild. “We value our constituents and the search committee wants to hear from the public on the qualities our next leader should possess to help advance the Richmond Symphony as we move back into the Carpenter Theatre at Richmond CenterStage.”

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The Richmond Symphony has announced the selection of Erin Freeman as their new Associate Conductor. Erin recently completed a Doctor of Musical Arts in Orchestral Conducting from Peabody Conservatory. She is currently the Director of Orchestras at the Baltimore School for the Arts and has been the Music Director for the Richmond Philharmonic since 2004.

The Richmond Symphony has issued a full press release.

Our neighbors in Norfolk have put together a very effective PR campaign. It has a memorable catch phrase:”Hampton Roads’ Major League Team!”. It has a very simple, two fold, message… literally; the quality of their worth to the community, and their immediate, very tangible goals. It utilizes both the old media, pamphlets, and the new media, a dedicated website.

So what, that’s what professional Orchestras do, right? Only it wasn’t the management of the VSO that masterminded this campaign; it was the musicians themselves. As preparation for an upcoming collective bargaining endeavor, the musicians conceived, developed, and executed a very successful PR campaign designed to serve their immediate needs, complement the overall VSO PR strategy and establish a permanent, public voice for the musicians.

Here’s the musician’s website.

See this Polyphonic.org article for an inside look at this initiative.

There’s an interesting discussion over on ployphonic.org about collective bargaining, including traditional and “interest based” approaches.

Several panel members are from the American Federation of Musicians’ symphonic services division; others are from some of our peer orchestras.

The Roanoke Times is reporting that the Roanoke Symphony Orchestra’s Executive Director has resigned.

Does anyone know more about what’s been going on down there?

After months of picketing, subscriber complaints and a change in PBT leadership, the Pittsburgh Ballet will resume using live music Febuary 9th. This development comes just days before the two sides were scheduled to meet with the National Labor Relations Board. Notably, the musicians are donating their services for the Feb. performance.

PittsburghLIVE.com has an article.

From the ROPA mailing list:
The Toledo Blade is running this story about orchestras in small cities. The article quotes Cathy Maciariello from the Mellon Foundation and discusses the Toledo Symphony and several other small orchestras.

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The San Jose Mercury News has an article about the Symphony Silicon Valley performing with only guest conductors since they formed four seasons ago.

It’s interesting that not paying a Music Director salary doen’t seem to save much money since they still have to pay guest conductors. However, the musicians obviously have much more control of their fate.

Despite their extraordinary circumstances following Hurricane Katrina, the musicians of the Louisiana Philharmonic have rejected an offer from Radio City Music Hall to replace their regular orchestra.

Both Playbill Arts and the New York Times have articles.

From the ROPA mailing list
from Laura Ross, ICSOM Secretary
DO NOT WORK FOR
RADIO CITY MUSIC HALL/CABLEVISION
“CHRISTMAS SPECTACULAR”

Despite record profits approaching $100 million per year for this 10-week
show, management is seeking to slash the tenured orchestra musicians’
salaries by eliminating or severely limiting the overtime these musicians
earn working as many as 6 shows a day and often for 7 days a week.

Following a breakdown in negotiations with the new owners of Radio City
Music Hall on Thursday, October 6, 2005, Local 802 [New York City] was
informed that the management had hired a local contractor (the regular house
contractor is a member of Local 802.) This contractor will call music
schools and/or union or non-union musicians in New York, New Jersey or
anywhere in the US, Canada or Europe, to serve as replacement or “scab”
musicians.

Additionally, there is a strong rumor that the contractor will try to reach
out to the members of the Louisiana Philharmonic and offer this work as a
“charitable gesture”.

Members are asked to refuse this work and to notify Local 802 of any
attempts to hire within their jurisdiction.