By Joel Thurtell
Start with a world-class orchestra, one ranked in the top 10 in the United States.
What would be the easiest way to destroy such a beacon of musicianship?
Well, you could provoke a strike of musicians, and then blame the end of concerts on musicians and their union.
Americans mostly love to bash unions, and it’s a position our newspapers easily adopt, since they are businesses that don’t like unionized workers any more than the management of a symphony orchestra likes them.
But this is only a thumbnail scenario. It doesn’t capture the whole essence of what has been happening with the strike of musicians at the Detroit Symphony Orchestra.
Management forces workers to strike, then blames the strike on workers. News media — with their own distaste for unions and local history of labor-bashing — pretty much swallow management’s line, even editorializing against the musicians.
If you want to understand what’s been going on at the DSO, forget the News. Check out the musicians’ website.
My wife and I were DSO season ticket-holders for many years. As soon as we heard the musicians had struck, we demanded a refund of our ticket money. I wrote a letter to CEO Anne Parsons explaining that I would not buy tickets to the orchestra again until management had bargained a fair contract with DSO musicians.
That was in October, 2010.
It’s February, 2011, and DSO management still has not bargained a fair contract with its musicians. Instead, it has prolonged the strike and meanwhile dumped the remainder of its 2010-2011 concert schedule.
DSO management pretends those greedy musicians are to blame.
We got our DSO refund, but never got a response from Parsons, the DSO’s $400,000-a-year CEO.
It’s late February, 2011, and now I understand why Parsons never answered my request that she and the DSO board deal fairly with the musicians.
Her silence tells me she and the board never intended to give the musicians a square deal.
Why?
Because Parsons and the board have dug a huge financial pit for this once-splendid orchestra, and they need to rip huge and unreasonable concessions from the musicians in order to stave off the DSO’s bankruptcy.
That’s what I said: bankruptcy.
In the eyes of its creditors, the DSO is insolvent.
You can read about this unsung libretto in more detail at the musicians’ website. DSO oboist Shelley Heron and clarinetist Doug Cornelsen have laid out the history of bungling and incompetence by DSO management over the past few years.
The problems arose from botched fundraising and a financial plan that was just plain imbecilic.
It is the duty of world-class musicians like Cornelsen and Heron to put on fabulous concerts. Musicians should not be held accountable for managers’ fundraising failures.
It is the duty of $400,000-a-year CEOs to make sure fundraising is done properly and financial plans are kept within the realm of sanity.
Over very few years, the DSO management allowed its base of donors to erode from 25,000 to 5,000. More and more it relied on wealthy members of its board to ante up when fundraising fell short.
Why did the DSO fail at raising money? For a number of years, fundraising went on with great success. But when the two DSO officials in charge of fundraising departed, they were succeeded by new money-raisers propelled by Orchestra Halls’s revolving doors.
Eight fundraising heads came and went in four years.
It was deemed easier to hit the rich few for money rather than expend the effort to broaden the donor base.
But failure to meet fundraising goals was only part of the problem.
When the DSO proposed a $60 million addition to Orchestra Hall known as “The Max” after benefactor Max Fisher, enough money was raised to pay for construction of the new building.
But instead of paying for the project from money it collected from donors, DSO management chose to bet the money on the stock market. They speculated that they could parley donors’ money into even more money and tap interest on their endowment to pay for construction of the new building in addition to regular operating costs.
DSO bosses might as well have trusted donors’ money to a casino.
In 2008, the stock market tanked.
Meanwhile, the DSO has been tapping principal of its endowment to meet $3 million-a-year payments on bonds it used to finance The Max.
In January of 2010, a group of banks holding DSO debt pointed out that tapping principal is draining collateral the DSO used to secure its debt. The banks started to make noise about foreclosure.
That’s when DSO managers, led by the orchestra’s $400,000-a-year CEO Parsons, started beating on the musicians to give up salary, pension and health benefits with added time doing community outreach aimed at achieving the fundraising that was Parson’s job.
So the DSO strike is not really about musicians’ salaries and benefits.
It’s about DSO managers’ attempts to hide their own incompetence by charging the consequences of their ill-advised financial arrangements to the musicians.
This is not an explanation you’ll read about in The Detroit News, which loves to bash strikers.
But it helps to understand how a world-class orchestra could get into such a mess.
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Excellent and concise article on the facts. Thank you for writing an article that gives people the real reasons behind the strike. I hope that these issues are resolved but I fear for the worst. A friend and I drove up from Ohio for a concert in the park filled with dancers on buildings, guest conductors, and the DSO in the spring of 2009. It’s sad to think I may never hear that orchestra again.
A brilliant piece of journalism. You must be very proud of it. Did you take it word for word from the web site of disgruntled striking musicians? Were there even two original ideas there? You, sir, are ignorant, paranoid and wrong. Publishing things like this only prolongs the strike and makes things worse for Detroit. You should be ashamed.
Bravo for a wonderfully clear and insightful explanation of how the DSO got to where it is today. Unfortunately finding a clear path out of this mess will be harder than understanding how it evolved. The only thing of which I am confident is that the management and Board who created this morass cannot be relied on for a solution!
You are a real troublemaker Joel. Thank you for a great article.
From another troublemaker,
Gordon Stump, President
Detroit Federation of Musicians, Local 5
U.R. Foolish is a MORON and a COWARD – NO Name!! I Support the DSO 200% – BRAVO on this BRILLIANT Article!!
Very concise. Every word true, and not a word wasted. It hurts me to see the greatest musical institution of my youth, along with such fabulous musicians being treated so poorly by the very people who are paid so lavishly to take care of them.
Roger Zacks
Principal trumpet
Duisburg Philharmonic
Orchestra of the Deutsche Oper am Rhein
Clear and concise writing. Every word true, and not a word wasted. It hurts to see the most important cultural institution of my youth, along with some of the greatest musicians in the world today treated so poorly by the people that are paid so lavishly to take care of them.
Where I live I’ve seen quite a few great orchestras fold – among them, the Philharmonia Hungarica, where former DSO Music Director Antal Dorati was also Music Director. None of the orchestras that have folded are coming back.
If the people responsible think that they’re going to get more than a pat on the back from the American Symphony Orchestra League when the dust settles, they’re mistaken – it will be business as usual. For everyone except the unemployed musicians and their families, that is.
And for the city of Detroit.
Roger Zacks
Principal Trumpet
Duisburg Philharmonic
Orchestra of the Deutsche Oper am Rhein
Pretty good article. I am disappointed that the Detroit media has not exposed these problems. Given the current mismanagement I am not sure why anyone would donate to this organization (if it were not for the quality of the music.) Clearly, there needs to be a house-cleaning of the inept management who’s numerous, poorly thought-out decisions have led to this fiasco. If the symphony was a self-supporting business the management would be sacked (or, in the case of a wall-street firm, given a bonus) for this degree of mismanagement. While I do feel that the musicians are overpaid, they are obviously not the major problem at the DSO.
All of the armchair quarterbacks emerge after a failure. Those same armchair quarterbacks sit silently in the back of the orchestra beating on a bass drum. If you are such a fantastic whiz at business, then you should enter the risky world of business ownership and make your fortune so you can listen to people complain about the decisions you make and the ‘colossal’ salary you draw from having taken such risks. If you have not the courage to do so, then sit in the back of the orchestra and dingle your triangle.
DSO board should be ashamed. The board is responsible for the fiscal well-being of this group; for securing the finances and to make the orchestra run. They have failed to do this, and have run the orchestra into insolvency. DSO musicians are auditioning left and right, and the entire percussion section is now gone. These are some of the finest in the country, and as such they have many choices available to them. They do not have to stay there, and they will not. The musician salaries are right in line (under the previous contract) with other full time 52-week orchestras. The cuts offered would put them sharply below national average; cutting salaries to mid-60’s for starting musicians puts them in a position where the best musicians will look elsewhere, where starting salaries are low to mid-70’s. This drives talent away, and effectively, over time, will cause a decline in the stature of the orchestra. Given the unstable and unpredictable nature of these events and their implications for the future of the orchestra, I doubt they will recruit the best talent out there; the best talent will go where there is more security.
I have followed this story with great interest. A few comments from an accomplished, reasonably successful free-lance recording artist.
First, while it is true that you never want to wreck a good thing and offer up inferiority, in my opinion the DSO is more a victim of circumstance and hubris, rather then any single side bungling the business plan or the bottom line. The DSO, like most symphonies depended heavily on the local industry for donations to balance its books. I’m fairly certain that when GM declared bankruptcy, and the other mfrs went into the sales dumper, all that money dried up. It is true that the CEO’s job was to shore up this shortfall. But knowing there was no money the DSO board offered this ‘CEO stiff’ a $400K salary, and then hired McKinsey on top of it? I am pretty sure McKinsey cost them at least as much, and** I** would have given the DSO the same answer they got from McKinsey for, oh, say 1/10th the amount they paid those humps. (Bob Dylan said; ‘You don’t need a weatherman to tell which way the wind is blowin’.) My question is where was the board during such daringly stupid decisions were being made. As for the musicians, most freelance musicians work (including me) has declined some 40-60% as a result of the economic downturn. One famous performer, (with no history of any problems and with historically robust sales) has not had a recording contract in 9 years. What’s the relevance you ask? As musicians, we think of ourselves as adding to the richness of culture. Unfortunately, we exist as a luxury in society, not a need, and at times when the music industry is under pressure, those involved with ‘the business’ need to adapt according to market realities of supply, and demand, or bear the consequences of their intransigence.
In 2010, my performance salary was off 60%. I had numerous cancellations and broken promises as a result of budgetary shortfalls. Sometimes, I forgave contracts, rather than attempt to enforce them (the hiring party had no money). Would the musicians of the DSO be willing to take that kind of hit to their salary? If not, why not? If they aren’t, would they be willing to take work with another symphony? Or would they be willing to concede some of their salary for the good of the orchestra?
One thing is for certain. Unless some wealthy’white knight’ steps up and funds the orchestra, the prevailing attitudes on both sides will doom DSO’s future success.
The people who decided to play the stock market with the renovation funds were using DSO money. They can just walk away from this fiasco. The rest of us are left to pick up the pieces. This is typical in the world of high finance. Now, if Mr. X should decide to take the money set aside to pay off his mortgage and lose it in the stock market, then his family is in the homeless shelter. Translate this to the DSO, and you have musicians playing in high schools and looking for other permanent jobs. Only the management is unaffected.
What Joel omits from his article is that not only were there fundraising problems, but that the marketing efforts were less than sufficient, and the internal teamwork that should have been in place was very poor. This led to destructuve rapid staff turnover. Strategic decision-making (including finances) was off-the mark. All that said, the question still remains as to how and if it is possible to save this symphony.
Sadder still is that many, many other orchestras across the country are experiences nearly identical problems, and the DSO has been the sad face of the whole mess because it was a step or two ahead of everyone else. These other orchestras’ boards, managements, and musicians are desperately trying to navigate our own messes while watching the horrifying demise of the DSO. The musicians see it as a giant warning signal, while the boards/managements seem to see it as a harbinger…and are resigned (determined?) to let (make?) these organizations fail.
Nice work! I’d love to have Anne Parson’s job.
Michael Moore recently sent out an e-mail on the situation in Thompson, Canada (near Sudbury) where a multinational took over a Canadian company and is shutting down part of the local operation, which will cost 500-600 workers their jobs. http://www.readersupportednews.org/opinion2/274-41/5085-global-war-on-the-middle-class
One of the many comments in connection with the topic (Global War on the Middle Class) was the following:
The Detroit Symphony remains on strike against management’s refusal to negotiate. Like the unions in Wisconsin, they have put forward more than reasonable concessions and compromises, but management is not interested unless worker protections are completely abandoned. Like Wisconsin workers, they are portrayed as greedy layabouts with a a strong sense of entitlement. Management was hired to run the business operations of this world class musical organization, yet they now insist on the right to hire and fire at will with no input from the musicians in the orchestra. The musicians themselves have agreed to massive paycuts but stand strong against this union busting agenda. All over the world, multinational would-be feudal lords are attacking workers rights. Negotiation is not possible with this mentality. They seek nothing short of a completely emasculated working class, a wage slave class with no rights, no voice and no hope for a better future. Civilized society is itself under attack. Mr. Leeman’s example and the struggle of the Detroit Symphony demonstrate that this tyrannical push knows no boundaries. The arts in all forms are to be eviscerated. Only profit will remain.
another comment was as follows:
Does ‘big corporate’ do vile things? I’ve seen quite a few take overs and have been frankly taken back by things too numerous to count. Things like mass firings of personnel and discontinuances of various products support, oft before their time.
In early ’61 I went to work for Fender Musical Instrument in Fullerton CA, met Leo Fender along with a plethora of working musicians, some whose names you’d remember. CBS had just taken ownership, with Leo still employed there for a time.
I believe it was on a Friday that we were informed that we had the option of taking Monday off, if it would be too much of a strain to do the dirty work scheduled for that day. The task at hand was to literally destroy a half million dollar’s worth of inventory. Guitars, keyboards, tube amps (solid state was emerging, but not fully developed), and more. We were not allowed any of it for ourselves, even to purchase, just assigned hatchets.
As a musician and repair guy, it was probably my hardest day to get through, ever. And never since have I been a fan of big corporate. If Vale has truly contravened any agreements to the detriment of the community, and it certainly appears that way, let’s make our voices heard. (– Beau Leeman)
The DSO is disintegrating — some of its musicians are already leaving — and management has cut off its nose to spite its face, sending Detroit another step down the road to cultural ignorance.
J.K.
Over very few years, the DSO management allowed its base of donors to erode from 25,000 to 5,000. This says it all. Can you imagine taking $400,000 to head a non-profit with only 5,000 members?
Detroit is gone, over, as a city, from the richest city in North America, to a dystopic MadMax cemetery of desolation, crime, and blight. I am amazed the orchestra survived this long. Why did they not move? Why did they not downscale to a small chamber orchestra with some amateur players.
Here is the deal, musicians. No one is making money in music now, not in CD’s, not in live performances, not on tour, and not in conservatory. There is only room for a small remnant of the very very best. Everyone else needs a new career in something else.
Many ask who in these times, especially in hard-hit Detroit, would refuse a contract that, while calling for a 23% pay cut (from $105,000 per year) and mandating additional educational “outreach” work at management’s convenience, nevertheless provides salaries above $80,000 for a 36-week season, with four weeks’ paid vacation and good benefits.
hmmmm, not enough. Your choice, but I bet you will never again in your musical life have an offer this generous. ever. You may think you are worth it, but you are not. Plan to scrape by teaching beginners in high school bands, and bagging groceries.
I would like to ask U.R. foolish why he bashes the article without giving any reason for his extreme reaction, or even letting us in on what wasn’t true. I have read other news stories from both sides of the aisle and I can’t see where the musicians are to blame for what they have done. They deserve to be at least treated fairly, and adultly rather than treated like serfs.