11/11/16
I. BMI RESPONDS TO DOJ APPEAL OF FRACTIONAL LICENSING RULING
II. PACIFIC SYMPHONY
III. NACUSA CONCERT NOVEMBER 15th
IV. EVENTS
…Absolutely guaranteed anonymity – Former Musician’s Union officer
…The one voice of reason in a sea of insanity – Nashville ‘first call’ scoring musician
…Allows us to speak our minds without fear of reprisal
– L.A. Symphonic musician
…Reporting issues the Musicians Union doesn’t dare to mention – National touring musician
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I. BMI RESPONDS TO DOJ APPEAL OF FRACTIONAL
LICENSING RULING
Dear BMI member,
As you know, on September 16 federal Judge Louis Stanton
issued an order rejecting the U.S. Department of Justice’s
(DOJ) recent interpretation of the BMI consent decree,
concluding that BMI is free to engage in the fractional
licensing of musical works. As we expected, the DOJ
filed a motion today to appeal that decision. Rest assured
that BMI is well prepared to once again defend our position
in court.
I would like to share my statement to the press regarding
the appeal:
“While we hoped the DOJ would accept Judge Stanton’s
decision, we are not surprised it chose to file an appeal.
It is unfortunate that the DOJ continues to fight for an
interpretation of BMI’s consent decree that is at odds
with hundreds of thousands of songwriters and composers,
the country’s two largest performing rights organizations,
numerous publishers and members of the music community,
members of Congress, a U.S. Governor, the U.S. Copyright
Office and, in Judge Stanton, a federal judge.
We believe Judge Stanton’s decision is correct and look
forward to defending our position in the Court of Appeals
for the Second Circuit.”
As always, I will continue to update you on further happenings
on this front. In the meantime, please know that we are
approaching this development in the same way that led us
to our initial victory – by fighting to protect your rights
and maximize the value of your music.
Mike O’Neill
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II. ANOTHER PACIFIC SYMPHONY ARTICLE
As the music industry changes, the Pacific Symphony tries to keep up
Michael Hiltzik
Subscribers to the Pacific Symphony’s 12-concert classical series are
marking their calendars for the next performance later this month,
featuring the distinguished Spanish pianist Joaquin Achucarro in
the Grieg Piano Concerto. They should mark it with an asterisk,
because the orchestra is talking about going on strike.
The group’s 84 musicians (four more seats are currently vacant)
have been working without a contract since Aug. 31, when their
last four-year contract expired. They rejected management’s last
contract offer on Oct. 23. No talks are currently scheduled, and
the players are getting anxious about what happened last time,
when the negotiations stretched over a year and a half.
“Time is of the essence,” says Adam Neeley, a violist and head
of the bargaining committee for the players, who are members
of the American Federation of Musicians. “We have a clear
mandate from the members that we’re not going to keep
playing and playing without any negotiations.”
Labor unrest seems to be sweeping through the U.S. symphony
corps, with a strike at the Pittsburgh Symphony entering its second month
and a work stoppage at the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra causing
the cancellation of concerts through December. A two-day strike
staged in September by musicians of the storied Philadelphia
Orchestra — who hoped to recover some of the pay they lost
during the orchestra’s 2011 bankruptcy — forced cancellation
of its season-opening gala.
These tensions reflect the challenges generally facing performing
arts groups in the U.S., including an aging audience and more
tightfisted donors. Unlike employers such as manufacturing or
service companies, these groups have few options to stem rising
costs. “There are no opportunities for productivity gains in the
performing arts,” says Robert J. Flanagan, an emeritus labor expert
at Stanford business school who analyzed the economics of 63
U.S. orchestras, including the Pacific Symphony, for his 2012
book, “The Perilous Life of Symphony Orchestras.” The size of the
workforce is mandated by the demands of a performance piece:
a first-class orchestra can’t trim costs by having six violinists
on stage when a symphony requires 12 — at least not without
sacrificing artistic standards.
“Composers determine the labor costs of their works forever,”
Flanagan says. “Technological changes aren’t going to help much.”
On top of that, the Costa Mesa-based Pacific Symphony has
challenges all its own. Its musicians are trying to force a
fundamental change in its business model from part-time
to full-time, salaried employment.
The musicians say they’re trying to get the organization to
adapt to changing realities in the Southern California music
business; its management responds that the old model has
served it well, allowing for “slow and steady expansion over
the last three decades that sensibly matched our artistic
offerings with our community’s demonstrated appetite for
classical music,” as its president, John E. Forsyte, told me in
an email.
The Pacific may be overshadowed by the Los Angeles Philharmonic,
whose $117-million budget outstrips that of any other U.S.
symphony by a sizable margin. But it shouldn’t be overlooked.
The Pacific’s annual budget of $20 million ranks roughly 22nd
in size among U.S. orchestras, just behind the Indianapolis and
San Diego symphonies ($24 million each) and ahead of the
Milwaukee and Oregon symphonies (about $16 million each).
Unlike those orchestras, however, its musicians are paid per-
“service,” a catch-all term designating rehearsals and performances,
rather than salaried.
“They’re the only orchestra that size with a per-service model,
and they’re twice the size of any other per-service orchestras,”
says Drew McManus, a Chicago orchestra consultant who
writes a daily blog about the business.
In a sense, the Pacific is a prisoner of its own history. Founded
in 1978 at Cal State Fullerton, the orchestra became a favored
artistic side gig for Southern California’s army of studio musicians,
a relief valve from the film scores and commercial jingles from
which they chiefly earned their livelihood. They were happy with
its part-time nature because it allowed them maximum scope
to pursue more lucrative studio gigs.
“For a long time, at the negotiating table musicians tried to
get more flexibility in scheduling,” says Robert F. Sanders,
a former Pacific musician who is president of the Orange
County Musicians Assn. and participated in numerous
bargaining sessions.
In that environment the Pacific Symphony thrived. Its
ensemble comprised some of the finest musicians in
the country, it attracted world-class virtuosi as soloists,
and in 2006 it moved into the glittering Cesar Pelli-
designed Segerstrom Concert Hall in Costa Mesa. Its
artistic reputation was strong. Several alumni have
graduated to permanent jobs at major orchestras around
the country; Neeley, a Northwestern-trained performer,
recently auditioned for a chair at the Chicago Symphony
Orchestra and remains on-call as a member of its substitutes
roster.
But film, TV and commercial work has been disappearing
locally. Film scoring has moved to London and other
overseas locations; TV commercial producers abandoned
jingles and now rely more on licensed pop tracks. “When I
moved here,” Neeley told me, “part of the plan was to break
in at the studios, with the orchestra giving me a somewhat
livable base while I started a freelance career. Four years
later, I haven’t played a single gig at a major studio. That’s
because the work is not available.”
Consequently, the orchestra has become the principal source
of income for many members; the “flexibility” its musicians
once craved now imposes an undesirable uncertainty on their
annual income. That’s especially true because the symphony
doesn’t guarantee musicians a minimum number of services
per year.
The musicians say the Pacific can’t maintain its artistic quality
under the old model, as its average pay will shrink in relation
to competing orchestras. Its musicians can earn about $44,400
in the current season if they attend every available service,
according to the musicians union, but the average member
of the orchestra probably gets enough credits to earn $31,400.
By contrast, the rapidly-expanding San Diego Symphony, which
has an annual budget of about $24 million, recently reached
a five-year contract with its 82 salaried musicians that will
pay an average of about $70,000 in its first year, rising to
$80,000 in 2021.
“What we’re arguing for is not only in our best financial interest,”
says Neeley, “but is in the artistic interest of the organization
itself. If we continue to offer compensation that doesn’t begin
to compete with our peers, we’re going to see people leave the
orchestra, and fewer people auditioning for the orchestra.”
The symphony’s management has made some tentative steps
to meet the union’s “concerns about the predictability of work
and annual wages,” Forsyte says, but the musicians consider
these half-hearted. The symphony is willing to guarantee 185
services, according to the union, but with conditions that
could erode that figure over a year.
The question confronting the Pacific boils down to whether
it’s a $20-million orchestra that happens to employ part-time
musicians, or a part-time employer that happens to have a
$20-million budget. At the moment, it’s suspended between
those two models.
What both sides agree on is that the symphony has made
itself an indispensable part in Southern California’s artistic
landscape. It’s not the musicians’ fault, or management’s,
that the landscape has changed under its feet, but that
makes the symphony’s transformation into a full-time
orchestra more necessary, even urgent.
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III. NACUSA CONCERT NOVEMBER 15th
Festival of New and Improvised Music
Bolos and Stetsons:
Remembering Marshall Bialosky
China Inoue, Saxophone
Mary Au, Piano
Sally Etichetto, Mezzo-Soprano
Caroline Beck, Bassoon
Come join composers
Marshall Bialosky,
Mark Carlson,
Jonathon Grasse
Matthew Hetz
Paul W. Humphreys
Deon Nielson Price
Carol Worthey
for the next NACUSA Concert.
Marvin Laser Recital Hall,
La Corte Hall A 103
1000 East Victoria Street,
Carson, CA 90747
Parking $6/Lot 6, Adjacent to La Corte Hall
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IV. EVENTS
PHIL NORMAN CD – Now Available for Purchase
Since last months formal release by MAMA Records,
the Phil Norman Tentet’s newest CD has moved up
from #209 to #20 nationally by JAZZ WEEK CHARTS
which weekly tracks & monitors jazz CDs radio airplay
To order this NEW CD, simply e-mail your name and
address to PHIL NORMAN and we will mail you a copy.
Upon receipt submit your check for $20 – it’s that simple.
———————————–
DEAN AND RICHARD
DEAN AND RICHARD are now at Culver City Elks
the first Friday of every month.
7:30pm-10:30pm,
11160 Washington Pl. Culver City, 90232
310-839-8891
————————————-
LA WINDS JAZZ KATS 584
NO COVER, NO MINIMUM.
Every 2nd and 4th Tuesday of the month at
Viva Cantina
7:30-10:00.
900 Riverside Drive, Burbank.
Free parking across the street at Pickwick Bowl.
Come hear your favorite charts played the way
they should be. We are in the back room called
the Trailside Room. Come on down.
Guaranteed to swing.
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11/16/16
FREE ADMISSION GLENDALE NOON CONCERTS
Wed NOVEMBER 16, 2016 at 12:10-12:40 pm
Violinist Connie Kupka and Cellist David Speltz
Website: http://www.glendalenoonconcerts.blogspot.com
Thank you!
Jacqueline Suzuki
Curator, Glendale Noon Concerts
818 -249-5108
SFV SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
Nov. 19, 2016 – Agoura Hills/Calabasas Community Center
Bizet: Carmen Suite #1
Bizet: Symphony in C major
Fernandez: Oboe Concerto
– Francisco Castillo, oboist
Sibelius: Violin Concerto in D minor, 1st mvt.
Thompson Wang, violinist
Contact: Roberta Hoffman, publicist ([email protected])
www.sfvsymphony.com
Program information:
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Other concerts in the series Jan. 21, 2017 –
Tutor Family Center at Chaminade West Hills
Schumann: Manfred Overture
Mendelssohn: Symphony #3 in A minor (Scottish)
Belling: Music Madly Makes the World Go Round
Inaugural Performance Cary Belling, violinist
Mar. 18, 2017 – Agoura Hills/Calabasas Community Center
Tuttle: By Steam or By Dream Overture Inaugural Performance
Prokofiev: Symphony #1 in D major (Classical)
Ben-Haim: Pastorale Variée for Clarinet, Harp and Strings
Geoff Nudell, clarinetist
Beethoven: Romance for Violin and Orchestra
Domine: Frankenstein Fantasy – Ruth Bruegger, violinist
May 13, 2017 – Agoura Hills/Calabasas Community Center
Saint-Saens: Bacchanale from “Samson and Delilah”
Tchaikovsky: Orchestral Suite No. 2 in C major
Egizi: Orchestral Suite “In Memoria di Mio Padre”
Inaugural Performance
Programs subject to change
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You can read all previous offerings at: http://www.responsible47.com UNTIL NEXT TIME, THE COMMITTEE FOR A MORE RESPONSIBLE LOCAL 47