Please don’t go to this concert!

By Joel Thurtell

Striking musicians from the Detroit Symphony Orchestra are giving a concert this weekend.

Please don’t go!

It’s Saturday, February 26, 2011 at 8 p.m. in the First Presbyterian Church of Royal Oak, 529 Hendrie Boulevard, Royal Oak, MI.

I’m not gonna tell you any more about it, because DSO management, the geniuses who forced the musicians to strike last fall, are unhappy that the musicians are giving concerts. They say DSO strikers are taking money from the impoverished DSO.

So please don’t go.

You wouldn’t want to make Anne Parsons mad.

Anne Parsons is the CEO of the Detroit orchestra. She makes $400,000 a year. She wanted the musicians to take huge cuts in pay and benefits after she and her chronically incompetent DSO board did their best to gamble away the orchestra’s endowment. Wasn’t that neat? They raised the $60 million needed to build the Max Fisher addition to Orchestra Hall, but instead of using the money to pay contractors, they invested it in the stock market and instead borrowed money to pay for construction. You know what happened: In 2008, the stock market tanked, and the DSO board is robbing its endowment to repay $3 million a year in bond debt. Was this smart?

So, if the DSO is broke, they’re the ones that made it so.

Now, they don’t want you to attend concerts by striking DSO musicians.

Can you blame them?

A normal person, one with a functioning conscience, would be ashamed of having frittered away the orchestra’s nest egg.

But Anne Parsons wants you to think the musicians are greedy.

Remember, she wants the musicians to give up salary and benefits, and she’s pulling down four hundred grand a year.

So please, do what Anne Parsons would like you to do: Boycott the DSO musicians’ concerts.

By the way, this concert on Saturday sounds great.

I don’t know what pieces they’re playing, but all I need to know is that it features the Cut Time Players, CutTime Simfonica and the Brazeal Dennard Chorale. Each group is made up of brilliant DSO musicians.

Sorry, I got carried away. Please don’t buy tickets! Anne Parsons would not be happy with you.

She makes $400,000 a year and wants other people to take pay cuts.

Tickets:

$20 General Admission

$50 Premium Seating

Ticket Hotline: 248-860-6786

They take Paypal or credit cards in advance, or cash and checks at the door.

Please don’t go to this concert!

Not only will you make Anne Parsons happy.

But if you stay away, I’ll get a better seat!