For 25 years, the eminent violinist Sarah Chang has established herself as one of the superstars of the classical music world. I’ve always admired her phenomenal abilities and genial personality, and have sat next to her countless times as CM with various orchestras since we first met about 100 years ago at Juilliard. Now she’s been the victim of harassment and abuse. Or maybe not.<\/p>\n
For those of you just tuning in, Ms. Chang was the scheduled soloist for the opening weekend of concerts with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, appearances that were canceled when the orchestra went on strike last Monday. Last Thursday the DSO management announced that she would instead play a recital on Oct. 11 with the pianist Robert Koenig, and all tickets for the canceled weekend DSO concerts would be honored. Having been replaced by a violin and piano recital, the DSO musicians reacted predictably on various social media sites and other outlets, and promised to picket the concert. ICSOM, the AFM, and the DSO Musicians also sent formal letters to Ms. Chang and her management, Opus 3, urging them to reconsider her decision to play, and hundreds (if not thousands) of people all over the world posted messages overwhelmingly (but not entirely) unsympathetic to the notion of a replacement recital by Ms. Chang.<\/p>\n
Friday, Ms. Chang wrote on her twitter page that she “has requested that proceeds from the ticket sales be donated to the Detroit Symphony Orchestra’s Musician Pension Fund.” It is not clear what those proceeds would have been or where they would actually go, given the expenses of the concert, the fact that the concert had a major sponsor, ticket exchanges, and that under their rather punitive “plan B” contract proposal, the the DSO management has apparently “frozen” the Pension Fund. Ms. Chang’s publicist confirmed that she would receive a fee for her performance. On Sunday the DSO players held a (previously scheduled) self-produced concert of their own. Chang’s recital thus also created a competing event of sorts, although perhaps some patrons might\u00a0 have attended both.<\/p>\n
Late Sunday night, Ms. Chang decided to\u00a0cancel<\/a> the recital, citing “physical threats and career intimidation”. Initially, no source was given for any threats, and both Detroit Symphony CEO Anne Parsons and Chang’s manager Jenny Vogel declined to give specifics. In an\u00a0article<\/a> today, the firestorm of social media comments was examined further, with Ms. Parsons referring to one particularly harsh email or phone message to Ms. Chang; she didn’t know which, or who was behind it. She also characterized the online response as “bulllying”, without determining “who was behind it”. The article also mentions “experts” who helpfully explained “the Internet’s power to spread a message to tens of thousands of people in a matter of minutes”. The New York Times<\/a> weighed in yesterday and included a quote from Ms. Parsons as well: \u201cShe has crossed other picket lines,\u201d Ms. Parsons said, attributing the information to Ms. Chang\u2019s manager and saying she did not know the specific instances. \u201cI would not call her na\u00efve.\u201d<\/p>\n I followed this pretty closely over the weekend, canvassing as many sites as I could that had running discussions. What struck me most was how generally civil the comments were, considering the emotions involved. Of course there were exceptions, but nothing I could possibly construe as seriously threatening. Particularly notable was the tone of the letters from the AFM, ICSOM, and the Detroit Musicians to Ms. Chang, all of which were extremely courteous and respectful. Of course, perhaps Ms. Chang’s private emails and phone messages were another story, but she’s not commenting publicly. Drew McManus details the social media impact and much more in an excellent piece here.<\/a>.<\/p>\n Now, if a truly intimidating or threatening message or post was received by Ms. Chang during all of this, that’s very serious, and clearly the authorities would have to intervene and go after those responsible. I can only assume this is happening now. But so far, it appears that the DSO and Ms. Chang are mostly upset because, well, lots of people got really angry at them. If your definition of “harassment” or “bullying” is people criticizing you for replacing a DSO concert with a violin and piano recital, crossing a picket line, and getting a nice fee in the process, then maybe you’d agree with Ms. Chang and Ms. Parsons. Then (evidently) the only option is to cancel, become a victim, and blame everyone for voicing their opinions.<\/p>\n In my experience, this is a truly unique sequence of events . Typically, high-profile soloists and conductors stay far away from these types of situations, for obvious reasons. Obvious to most of us, anyway. Why she would want to insert herself into this whole picture is an interesting question, maybe one for her management. Ms. Chang is not a member of the AFM, and of course is free to play (or not play) wherever she chooses. And she certainly has the right to implicitly agree with the management’s position in what everyone agrees is a contentious and potentially fatal labor situation. The stakes are high- this strike is a result of failed negotiations involving fundamental issues with implications for the entire industry, and certainly even the survival of the DSO is a question. And despite what anyone says or thinks at this particular juncture (and no matter which side you are on), the only way forward is for a meaningful dialogue to occur (preferably soon), with tangible concessions from both sides. <\/em>Sooner or later, that’s always how it ends.<\/p>\n It’s unfortunate that the DSO management and Ms. Chang chose this approach over all other options: simply rescheduling the orchestra appearances, playing a concert in a nonpartisan location with neutral financial interests, or any number of other scenarios would probably have had a more positive (or at least more palatable) effect overall. The ramifications for Ms. Chang are by no means clear. Since canceling, she’s received a generous outpouring of support from lots of people previously accused of “intimidation” and “bullying” on sites like facebook. However, my informal polling indicates that a great many orchestral musicians have a very different perspective now, and given the choice, might opt for the Leroy Anderson festival instead of another Mendelssohn with her. But time will tell, and we don’t often call the shots on soloists anyway.<\/p>\n Over the past few days I keep thinking of the stereotype of orchestra musicians constantly complaining about soloists that just plow ahead without listening to anything else around them. It’s rare these days, but still happens once in awhile, I guess.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" For 25 years, the eminent violinist Sarah Chang has established herself as one of the superstars of the classical music world. I’ve always admired her phenomenal abilities and genial personality, and have sat next to her countless times as CM with various orchestras since we first met about 100 years ago at Juilliard. Now she’s been the victim of harassment and abuse. 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