Philadelphia fallout. Or is that Philadelphia Freedom? Either way, the Trumpeter shall sound off.
Philadelphia Orchestra Principal Trumpet Dave Bilger is……. uhhh……… modifing ……… yeah, that’s it……. his relationship with the orchestra. In an interestingly worded statement he is cutting back on his playing time with the Philly and taking a teaching job with the University of Georgia.
There is an explicit acknowledgment in Mr. Bilger’s statement that part of the reason why he is taking this teaching position is because of the current situation at the Philadelphia Orchestra. It perhaps should be pointed out that it was that very orchestra that worked to make this possible, but let us move beyond that point. The situation in Philly is immediately germaine to his decision to take the position @ UofG.
Many interesting things here, especially to people not intimately familiar with the orchestral scene. People who have “real” jobs (I remember someone asking a violinist friend of mine if his new girlfriend was a musician or a “civilian”) may find this unusual, but I know many musician who commute between their playing gig and their teaching gig. The “interesting” stuff comes later.
There is one major point that should be addressed. This concerns the Board of Philly which Mr. Bilger points out in his statement:
One of the more vocal members of the POA Board of Directors has stated on many occasions that the musicians of the orchestra won’t leave, no matter what sort of contract (and pension) is offered to us. He has flatly stated, “Where will they go?”
Obviously this Board member is talking out of ignorance and a misunderstanding of the secret workings of the music world. Frankly, if you are good enough and not a complete bastard someone is going to give you a job, and odds are it’ll be a pretty good job. (Of course, this being the Music business, being a complete bastard is rarely an impediment to getting a good job.) Statements such as this Board member’s don’t help and it highlights something that I have harped upon in this blog before – said Board member just doesn’t know any better. They’ve probably never played an instrument, they have no connection with music, and they have no idea how musicians get to an orchestra on the level of Philly. No matter how hard you try you can’t compare the Philadelphia Orchestra with the Caterpillar Corporation. They will never function anywhere close to the same way, and anyone who comes onto the Board of Directors of Philly expecting otherwise will be sorely disappointed.
Board members of major orchestras used to have a stronger connection with what it is that we do. They came on the Board for the love of music, or they played music in their youth, or whatever. Now it’s all about the money and prestige. The problem here is education, and until we turn around our society to a point where investing in music education is considered a good thing we are going to continue to deal with Mr./Mrs./Ms. Ignorant Board Member.
Then again, it is tempting to have a long drawn out discussion on musician’s culpability. An orchestra is an extremely personnel heavy business model and at some point a contract in Philly was negotiated and signed on behalf of those personnel that provided for a very good salary, pension, and the flexibility of people such as Mr. Bilger to effectively renegotiate his personal position. That’s the good news. The bad news is – was that contract economically viable? And if not, who has to share the responsibility?
Currently one would say that in retrospect, knowing what we know about the economy and various other factors, the Philly business model was/is out of whack, and that unfortunately includes the musician’s contract. There seems to be precious little focus on how an organization such as Philly should look 10, 20, or 30 years down the line. The focus always seems to be from one musician’s contract to another. Contract negotiations are the temporal Maginot lines of an orchestra’s existence.
I wonder, but what would the situation be in Philly today if 10 years back all the constituencies involved (Board, Administration, and Musicians) had taken 5% annually of whatever they were wrangling about during that particular set of negotiations and set it aside, for the future. For a rainy day. Only to be raided during major economic downturns.
Oh, who am I kidding? We’re too busy sticking it to each other to think like that. And in the end we all lose because of it.