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IN Music News THIS WEEK:
Kahane to Lead Colorado Symphony
Population and Symphony Budgets
Arts Council Chief Quits
Cal Performances' Next Season
Scottish Opera Deep in Debt
Trouble in Baltimore
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By Janos Gereben
AGMA Reaches Agreement with SF Opera
Close as the possibility of a strike by the San Francisco Opera Chorus appeared in recent weeks, the situation took a sudden, sharp turn for the better. Nora Heiber, San Francisco Area representative of the American Guild of Musical Artists (AGMA) notified the union membership Thursday noon that AGMA has reached a tentative agreement with the San Francisco Opera over the terms of the renegotiated collective bargaining agreement. No information has been released about the terms of the agreement. Membership vote on the proposed contract is expected "within a few weeks," according to Heiber, who announced that the negotiating committee recommends ratification of the agreement.
Just two weeks ago, the Opera management was expected to give its "final offer" to in the contract talks that have gone on for more than a year. AGMA national executive director Alan Gordon told Classical Voice that the "only way to avoid work stoppage is to achieve (salary) parity" with the orchestra, but he also pledged doing "everything possible" to avoid a strike. At issue are salary, benefits and work rules for 45 members of the Opera Chorus, about 50 extra singers, eight dancers, up to 15 extra dancers, a variable number of soloists (as many as 200 at a time), and eight members of the production staff.
Under the expired contract, Chorus members had an annual minimum of $38,500, based on a 33-week period. The Opera Orchestra's new contract provides for a base salary of $65,000 for 22 weeks of work. AGMA's demand was for at least a 90% parity. The union claimed that its members worked in 2002 at 25% below 2001 wages, were offered a wage freeze for the next season, and a 1% wage increase for 2005-2006.
Kahane to Lead Colorado Symphony The Colorado Symphony announced on Monday that Santa Rosa Symphony music director Jeffrey Kahane, 47, will lead the Denver-based orchestra, beginning with the 2005-2006 season, but becoming official "music director designate" this fall. He will be the ninth music director in the 81-year history of the orchestra (previously known as the Denver Symphony). Kahane is succeeding Marin Alsop, also 47, who became CSO's music director laureate shortly after appointed principal conductor of the Bournemouth Symphony in England last year. Kahane will complete his 10th year in Santa Rosa next June, becoming SRS's music advisor, and will plan the 2006-2007 season. Santa Rosa Symphony executive director Alan Silow told Classical Voice that a search committee for Kahane's successor has already been formed, including four orchestra musicians, five board members and himself from the administration. The goal, Silow said, is to come up with a preliminary short list of a dozen names as soon as next month. Two guest conductors have been engaged for the next season even before these new developments, and five more guests/candidates are expected to be added. Some background facts:
Population and Symphony Budgets Working on the story about Jeffrey Kahane's appointment to the Colorado Symphony brought up this item from his predecessor there, Marin Alsop. About a year before she quit as music director, Alsop appealed to the city to help the orchestra, then facing what she termed a "substantial deficit." This is what she wrote in 2001: "This (the Denver orchestra's then-$9 million budget) is in a city of 2.25 million people. The Cincinnati Symphony, in a city with a population of less than 2 million, has a budget of $33.7 million and an endowment of $92 million, with the musicians earning double the salary of the CSO musicians (and the cost of living in Cincinnati is far less). The Oregon Symphony (Portland's population is 1.4 million) has a budget of $12.3 million, an endowment of $32.5 million, and salaries substantially higher than the CSO." Figures for San Francisco today: population of 780,000; Symphony budget of $49 million (and SF Ballet, $29 million; SF Opera, $60 million).
Arts Council Chief Quits Barry Hessenius, president of the California Arts Council, has resigned, effective May 15, allowing Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to name his successor. During the four years Hessenius held the position, the state's arts budget plunged from $30.7 million to $1 million. "This is a Republican administration, and a Republican appointee may have a better chance, a better ear and more success raising money for the arts," Hessenius told the Sacramento Bee. "Unfortunately, here in California, not so much in other states, the arts are a partisan issue and it shouldn't be. What we are in danger of here, because of the budget cuts, and because of foundation, corporate and private funding cuts, is becoming a state of haves and have-nots as far as culture goes," Hessenius said. Juan Carrillo, currently the CAC's chief of grants, will be interim director.
Cal Performances' Next Season Cal Performances will feature some major ballet events in the Berkeley company's 2004-2005 season, announced today. The season includes visits by the Bolshoi, Matthew Bourne, Suzanne Farrell, Mark Morris, Trisha Brown, Alvin Ailey, the Ukrainian National Dance Company, the National Ballet of Canada, and the Eifman Ballet. Visiting orchestras include the Gewandhaus of Leipzig, conducted by Herbert Blomstedt, and the Kirov Orchestra of the Mariinsky Theater, conducted by Valery Gergiev. Among chamber-music groups: Lucerne Festival Strings, Le Concert Spirituel, Musicians from Marlboro, Miró Quartet, Takács Quartet, Giardino Armonico, Kronos Quartet, Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin. For full information, see www.calperfs.berkeley.edu.
Scottish Opera Deep in Debt The very existence of the Scottish Opera, one of Europe's major companies, is now in question, as a government agencies are trying to figure out what to do with a large shortfall. No 2005 season has been announced; the expectation is that 80 of the company's full-time employees (including the entire 34-member chorus) will be terminated, and even that drastic measure may not be enough to assure Scottish Opera's survival.
Trouble in Baltimore The Baltimore Symphony is expected to increase its projected deficit for the 2003-2004 season from $1.6 million to $2 million, pushing the orchestra's accumulated debt to about $3.2 million. Driving the red ink are shortfalls in ticket sales for the BSO's own concerts and presentations of other performers at Meyerhoff Symphony Hall, and a shortfall in contributions to the annual fund.
(Janos Gereben, a regular contributor to www.sfcv.org, is arts editor of the
Post Newspaper Group. His e-mail address is janosg@gmail.com.)
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