NY Phil Finds Way to Pay Musicians Rather than Layoffs

alexwill

The news is much better than the headline implies!! The NY Times article may be blocked but here are the two most important sentences """""The (New York) Philharmonic said the salaries of 106-unionized orchestra players will be cut to minimum scale for April and 75% of minimum scale through May. Health benefits will be continued through the current contract’s expiration on Sept. 20.""""""Some good news for the double reeds and all other musicians of the New York Philharmonic.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/23/arts/music/new-york-philharmonic-coronavirus.html

Turkle · Posted: Wed Mar 25, 2020 6:49 am Post subject:

Meanwhile, it looks like the Met Opera has fired their orchestra, chorus, and union crew members unilaterally. And then they have the nerve to email me asking for a donation! Boy did I send them a furious note. The gall.

Seriously, the people that run these large arts organizations just have no shame any more. Read the room, people.

As others have observed, the correct way to go about this is to announce to your donor base that you want to find a way to continue paying everyone, and it will cost X, so please help. Not "we fired everyone and need a few million to tide us over until next season."

I just can't. Good luck to all the musicians out there.
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mhenrikse · Veteran Member Joined: 21 Jul 2009 Posts: 162

HERMOKIWI · Heavyweight Member Joined: 24 Dec 2008 Posts: 2581

Turkle · Posted: Wed Mar 25, 2020 7:49 am Post subject:

HERMOKIWI · Heavyweight Member Joined: 24 Dec 2008 Posts: 2581

Turkle · Posted: Wed Mar 25, 2020 9:54 am Post subject:

This will be my last post on this topic. Suffice it to say that many other arts organizations have chosen not to immediately fire all the artists that make the actual, you know, art. That the Met did so, immediately before a tone-deaf fundraising email, is an affront to basic decency.

And to your point, that it is easy to "spend other people's money," I would like to make two things very clear:

1) This is explicitly a FUNDRAISING EMAIL. That is, they are asking to "SPEND MY MONEY." I am not presuming to make their business decisions for them, but if they want MY MONEY after firing the artists, they can get bent.

2) I can't believe that this needs to be said, in a forum of artists, but arts organizations are not closely-held private businesses subject to the whims of their owners. As non-profit companies, they are answerable to their broader constituencies of their employees, artists, and the communities they exist in and enrich, and that depend on them. Presumably, as someone who appears to have worked as a fundraiser in this environment, you understand that.

Yes, arts organizations should be mercilessly condemned for treating their rosters of, you know, artists, with such callous contempt. And their special status as nonprofits, and their reputations within the community as deserving of lavish gifts from the wealthy and small patrons like myself, reflect that responsibility to the artistic community and the public. Crises happen, and if they so catastrophically mismanage their endowments as to necessitate firing all their artists when one does happen, then they are prima facie guilty of dereliction of duty.

Have a good day.
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Yamaha 8310Z trumpet
Yamaha 8310Z flugel
Curry 3.

mhenrikse · Veteran Member Joined: 21 Jul 2009 Posts: 162

multiphonic · Veteran Member Joined: 14 Oct 2019 Posts: 139

hup_d_dup · Posted: Mon Mar 30, 2020 11:46 am Post subject:

etc-etc · Heavyweight Member Joined: 19 Jan 2008 Posts: 6180

Very well said!