Professional Musicians of Arizona host Orchestra Players Symposium with great success!
Submitted by Guest on Thu, 04/01/2010 - 1:14pm
Orchestral musicians from all three major Arizona orchestras and from as far away as California, New Mexico and Spokane, Washington were in attendance on Jan. 31st and Feb. 1st for Local 586’s first education and networking event aimed at reaching and teaching rank-and-file orchestral musicians as well as committee members and local officers.
Conceived and produced by Nathan Mitchell (horn, AZ Opera, Gammage Theater and The Phoenix Symphony) and Madelyn Roberts, S/T of Local 586, the Symposium’s events drew approximately 50 musicians and presenters who attended all or some of the various portions of the two-day activities schedule.
The Symposium’s Sunday session began with a meet-and-greet party at the recently renovated Local 586 Musicians Hall. Attorneys Susan Martin and her partner/husband Dan Bonnett spent time explaining their work on behalf of unionized workers and answering questions from the players. Dan, a recognized expert in the field of EEOC law, spoke on current employment law, discrimination, harassment and the devastating results of recent decisions by the Supreme Court and the negative effect it has had on the lives of working-class Americans. Susan Martin, expert in labor law and negotiations, then discussed some of the recent orchestral struggles in which she has lately been involved, including the challenges facing local unions representing orchestras in a hostile negotiating environment. She described apparently orchestrated uses of the same doom and gloom “sky is falling” language and phrases adopted by orchestra managements around the country, a theme repeated the following day by William Thompson and Nathan Kahn in their presentations.
The next morning the participants met at Central United Methodist Church for a continental breakfast and then got down to business. The first speaker, Professor William Thompson of the University of Kentucky at Louisville, galvanized the group. Professor Thompson is a nationally recognized expert in Media and Communications and he has worked with a number of orchestras around the U.S. when problems or situations arise which require public relations presence and media expertise. By offering the musicians new perspectives and ways to handle or think about old problems, he explained some of the important aspects of developing effective media and public relations as well as personal relationships with key people in each symphony’s world. William was revelatory in discussing how musicians can relate to members of the orchestra’s boards of directors as equals, not underlings or hired help. He emphasized the value of building audience appreciation by being accessible in more ways than just sitting on the stage playing great music.
Nathan Kahn, AFM Symphonic Negotiator, had fortuitously already been scheduled to come to Phoenix to work with the members the Arizona Opera Negotiating Committee in preparation for their upcoming negotiations with a new management. He graciously accepted our request that he also do some talking and question answering at the Symposium.
Since he had already developed something educational for musicians concerning negotiations, Nathan showed us a power point presentation “Concessionary Bargaining”, a topic currently affecting a number of the musicians present. Nathan discussed the common use of “buzz” phrases used by managements around the country: “belt tightening”, “fiscal responsibility to the community”, “economically viable” and “structural deficit” bringing knowing nods from the audience. One power point message that can’t be emphasized too much was this: “Too often symphony musicians and their negotiating committees do not realize the immense number of campaign tools and other resources available to them.”
Presenters also included conductor and humorist Tom Jensen of Denver, CO., who talked about his quarter century relationships with Denver musicians as well as how to put on events that make money and interest a wide audience.
Tom recently did a charity comedic/musical program with a Colorado orchestra and raised over $34,000.00 contributions in one night. He is also in the Guinness Book of World Records for having conducted for the longest continuous period of time, doing a fundraiser for the Colorado Springs Orchestra musicians, in a local grocery store for three straight days. “We need a price check on a cellist in aisle 4, please”. Tom’s points were not always complimentary to all musicians, in itself not a bad thing, since how others view us becomes important to our understanding of what is positive or negative to our overall image. A panel of musicians, local union leaders who are also symphony musicians, ROPA representatives and committee members discussed the issues and circumstances in which symphonies find themselves in today’s environment. We were especially pleased to welcome representatives of Local 33, Tucson, led by their president, Don Borque. As a bassist with the Tucson Symphony he has seen the many ups and downs of that orchestra over a number of years. Bruce Hembd, hornist with the Arizona Opera Orchestra and webmaster par excellence, did a power point presentation on the importance of orchestra musicians associations building and maintaining a strong, responsive and effective website. Letting others know of the musicians’ status and participation in the life of the local community is one way to promote your value as a group and as individuals. Keeping the site interesting, colorful, including pictures of the musicians in the ensemble and providing sound samples are also effective ways of creating a presence and unique group identity.
Symposium co-organizer, Madelyn Roberts, said, “It is gratifying to be able to provide orchestra players the chance to receive similarly intensive levels of education, information and understanding of strategic growth as negotiating committees, orchestra committees, ICSOM and ROPA representatives often receive. It energizes and empowers musicians who may never before have been involved in the orchestral “business world”. Information coming directly from experts to rank-and-file musicians about their rights and obligations to each other can only help promote orchestral longevity and health. When individual musicians can meet, interact with and learn in a one-on-one environment from experts, along with direct and unfiltered access to their colleagues from other ensembles, it can result in valuable expansion of the individual musician’s knowledge base and personal involvement in his or her career destiny. It builds a wider scope of professional relationships, and a sense of the larger community of which they are a part. It also reveals the commonality of experiences facing almost all orchestras, most of whom are struggling to survive in today’s difficult musical and economic environment. It has been a true pleasure being able to develop this project and bring it to fulfillment and we hope this is the first of many learning and networking opportunities for professional musicians.”
AND THE “THANKYOU” AWARDS GO TO: Susan Martin, Dan Bonnett, William Thompson, Nathan Kahn, Tom Jensen, Fred and Jill Marderness, Bruce Pulk, Dan Patrylak, Nathan Mitchell, Claudia Botterweg, Madelyn Roberts, Tina Morrison, Dimitri Lazarescu and all the attendees who made this event a success.
